


Ugly

by Poteto



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fluffy and Humor, I changed the summary because I was told that this is actually a goddamn comedy, Inappropriate Humor, Kise centered, M/M, Mentions of Violence, Swearing, abusive relationship (formerly), so many friendships jfc, that's all i'm going to say, there will be sexual situations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-03-13 04:46:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3368363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poteto/pseuds/Poteto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryouta thinks he's ugly and nobody will want to love him, but after encountering his high school somewhat crush and between all sort of shenanigans, childish bets and inappropriate conversations, he may find himself getting better in an unexpected way.<br/>(Inspired by 2ne1's song)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fake Smiles

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe my first long fic in English is a Kuroko no Basket one, yet... Here it is.  
> I already have a few chapters ready, so I think I'll be updating regularly.  
> Ryouta is currently in denial about his break up with Haizaki and this is the first time that I try to write something this angsty. I hope it's not as bad as I fear.

Ryouta smiles at his own reflection. It looks forced, _fake_. With a sigh, he gives up on trying to put on a cheerful expression. There is no use, anyway. Ryouta had spent years building a happy-go-lucky character in front of the cameras, but now he wish he hadn't. He doesn't think he can keep his cheerful model persona. Not today.

It’s not like it’s the first time he has a fight with his boyfriend. Not even close to that. Maybe that’s the reason why he’s so tired.

The truth is that his relationship with Shougo was never easy, not even when they were just friends. Shougo would ever be the one picking on him and being a jerk in general… Nevertheless, Shougo had seen Ryouta’s real personality – not the cute fool, not the stupid cheery teenager-like idol that everyone seems to love. He saw the ambitious, cunning model. The Ryouta that hates losing, the Ryouta who is vain and who is unwilling to waste his time with the ones he considers to be beneath him – and Shougo stuck around. Maybe because his personality was even worse than Ryouta’s.

Now he wonders why the hell he thought it was going to be fun to date Shougo when he found out the bullying was Shougo’s way to get his attention. Ryouta really had it coming.

“What are you doing, Kise?” Kasamatsu barks as he enters the room adjusting his tie “Why are still wearing those hideous sweatpants? You know we’re leaving within a few minutes, right?”

“Hm… Yeah… About that, do I really have to go?”

“No.” Kasamatsu replies, his voice bathed in sarcasm “You should just stay here by yourself, drowning in self-pity.”

Ryouta lets out a frustrated moan. He knows that Kasamatsu’s intentions are the best, but he doesn't really think that going to a party is the solution to all his problems right now. And it isn't even a _real_ party, a fun one. It is a boring social party, where everybody just drink and walks around exchanging boring stories, making contacts and faking smiles. Ryouta doesn't think he can stand that today.

“Please, _senpai_ …!” He begs, even though he knows it's useless.

“If I let you stay, what are you going to do? Are you going to think of a way to actually break up with that asshole?”

“It is not that simple.”

He doesn't know why, but, indeed, it isn't. It's true that he is pretty sure that he isn't happy. But what is happiness, after all? Who guarantees that once he leaves Shougo, everything will be better? If anything, he will be as miserable as always _and_ lonely. As far as Kise knows, those perfect relationships that he sees – and lives – in soap operas are just that: fiction. There is no perfect romance, there is no soul mate shit, and there is no happy ending. Not for guys like him.

It’s not like he hadn't _tried_ to end their relationship. It’s not easy to simply let go of something you've been enduring for such a long time. They've been together since high school graduation, after all.

Hell, they even share a god damn apartment! They know each other’s perks and hindrances – the latter being what they know the most – and they have accepted it… Not without a lot of complaining from Shougo's side, but still.

Maybe that’s the way things are. There is no one in the world that can endure Ryouta's flaws better than Shougo. They fight a lot, and Shougo bashes him a lot also. But how can he ask for more, when he’s that despicable?

“You know you should listen to me, right?” Kasamatsu insists.

“I know you’re my agent, _senpai_ , but still… That’s my personal life.” Ryouta pouts.

“As your manager, is still my business who you date. I have to take care of your public image. As your goddamn friend, I worry about you living with that sad excuse of human being and calling it your boyfriend.”

“Fine, I’ll go to your party, let’s not have this conversation, please?”

Kasamatsu was Ryouta’s captain in high school, when he was part of the basketball club. They became close enough to stay friends even when Kasamatsu graduated. Of course Kise would look for him when he needed an agent. Ryouta would trust his life to Kasamatsu, of course, but not enough to follow his constant advice of breaking up with Shougo. They have some agreement to don't go too further on the topic, so it won't harm their friendship, but that doesn't stop Kasamatsu from complaining about it now and then.

_It is not as simple as he thinks it is. Senpai doesn’t understand._

As Kasamatsu sighs and leaves the room, Kise grabs his stuff to look for something to dress. He realizes he left most of his good clothes at home. He sighs deeply, telling himself to be patient. Stuffing a single backpack with random things and running away after their fight wasn't his wisest move – and it wasn't even the first time, but it didn’t get any better with the experience – although it was comforting to know that he could crash on Kasamatsu’s apartment whenever.

He goes for a quick shower – at least for him, which is not quick enough for Kasamatsu not bang angrily at the door yelling that he should hurry up – and doesn’t even bother dressing up too much. If anybody asks, it’s just his usual carefree character showing. The happy, _so happy_ , guy that doesn’t even bother trying to look good. That v neck shirt looks amazing on him anyway, or that’s what he’s thinking while he rolls up the sleeves, leaving just enough of forearm to show.

“Kise, hurry up! Damn it!”

“I’m coming. And I’m hating every minute of it.”

“That’s the spirit!”

* * *

 

It isn’t as boring as Ryouta’s predicted, but it isn’t as fun either. He wants to get drunk and pass out on the dance floor, but the party isn’t crowded enough for that. It’s just a giant buffet in some fancy hotel ballroom, filled with boring people. Also, it is more than stated that Kasamatsu will feed him to rabid bears if he makes a scene, so he behaves. He fakes smiles to people whose names he doesn’t know. He spends the whole time holding the same modest glass of champagne, pretending he doesn’t want to drink a whole bottle of vodka instead. He politely small-talks to some boring models. Some of them poorly try to hit on him.

They don’t know, they have no idea. There’s no way they would be that interested in Ryouta if they knew the real him. They would want distance.

“Shit!” A deep voice mutters as its owner bumped into him.

Ryouta wants to tell the asshole to watch where they’re going, but he is faking another stupid grin before he can even think of being sincerely rude.

“I’m sorry.” Ryouta smiles, even though he was literally just standing there and resting from all of that boring socialization when that stupid ass blind dude ran into him. He waits for the stranger to apologize as well, so they can start another pointless conversation before Ryouta find a way to leave.

“Dude, don’t your cheeks hurt?”

Ryouta blinks once. Twice.

_What the hell?_

“E… Excuse me?” It’s almost difficult to keep the smile there.

“Your face, isn’t it tiring to force a smile like that?”

Ryouta is dumbfounded. The guy in front of him is somehow familiar, but at the same time he isn’t. He is tall. Really tall. Taller than Ryouta, even. That’s not something Ryouta sees every day. Everything about him is dark: dark hair, dark skin, and dark clothes. His looks are honestly plain, but there is something about him that makes Ryouta keep staring. He can swear he saw this guy before, but he’s pretty sure that he wouldn’t forget him that easy. His haircut is not fashionable, his clothes can be only described as normal, he is attractive, but not model-like attractive… But it’s almost as if, behind all of that darkness, he has some kind of light within.

“That look with chin dropped seems to be more comfortable, but…”

“Hm… Excuse me, who are you?” Ryouta finally manages.

“Who are _you_?”

“I asked you first.”

“I asked you second.”

Oh no, they are not doing this. Ryouta takes a small breath and puts on another smile, a more modest one this time.

“Alright, then. I am…”

“Ryouta Kise. I know. I don’t think there is anyone here who don't know who you are.”

Ryouta has never wanted to punch anyone so bad. Not even in high school, when he played against the cockiest bastard ever, that nerd from middle school Shintarou Midorima, who ended up becoming Ryouta’s friend later somehow. When they played against each other, Midorima was wearing those stupid heart googles and claimed that they’re his lucky item or shit and…

Wait. Middle school. Basketball. Light.

“Daiki Aomine.” He lets out.

“Oh. You know my name. How the fuck do you know my name. Please, don’t tell my boss I told you you’re hurting your cheeks by fake-smiling too much, he’s going to fire me if he finds out I did it again.”

“What? No, I just… We went to the same middle school, and you were… in the basketball… team.” Ryouta’s voice lowers to a whisper as he finishes the sentence.

Now, who the fuck remembers people from middle school? People from middle school you didn’t even use to talk to? He probably sounded like a total weirdo. But he does remember Aomine. He remembers way too much.

He was 15 when his girlfriend asked him to go with her to watch a match of their school’s basketball team. He went, mostly because he wanted to please her other than interest in the basketball itself. He had tried sports. He had tried way too much. But everything became too easy too fast. Everyone was so inferior and playing became boring, so he gave up trying. He didn’t feel any motivation to do anything other than focus on his model career.

And then was when he saw it. It was almost a religious experience. He still can remember the tension, the feeling of despair of the opposite team. How the five players moved on the court without any effort, how it seemed natural for them. That was a team who didn’t know what it was to be defeated. They were unstoppable.

More than the others, there was Aomine. There was that gigantic guy that was nothing like a middle schooler, there was that stupid Midorima, there was their amazing captain, of course – and probably another player, but Ryouta can’t recall anything about him – but the brightest was Daiki Aomine. That wild style caught Ryouta’s attention. Made him want to play like that as well.

Ryouta graduated soon after that, but he made sure to join a school with a strong team. The first thing he did when he entered high school was joining the basketball club. Like all of the sports he tried before, it was almost effortless, but even though he became his team’s ace in his first year, it was never enough, because he knew that there was someone out there who was stronger than him, someone he wanted to meet and play against – or play with – someday.

For some reason, Kise never got to play against Aomine.

And now there is the _motherfucker_ , in front of him.

“I mean… O-our basketball team was famous back then.” He stutters, trying to sound nonchalant and failing. “And my… my girlfriend was super into basketball and she dragged me to all of your games. I thought you looked familiar, so I remembered your name suddenly and… Yeah.” He swallows the rest of his champagne, once again wishing that he had something stronger.

“Oh. Right.” If Aomine thinks it’s strange, he doesn’t show it. In fact, he looks bored. “Anyway, you okay there, bud? Of all those fake smiles I saw today, yours seems to be the most painful.”

“What, are you a therapist or something?”

“Nah. I’m a photographer. I’m here for all of those free drinks. And you’re here because someone made you come, I guess.”

_Ah, look at him. The man I spent my teenage years admiring and trying to surpass. What an obnoxious piece of shit._

“Hm… Aomine-kun, you seem to like to read people.”

“Me? Nah. It’s just that you’re wearing this really annoyed look and it can’t possibly be because of my delightful company, so I assume you’re bored because this party sucks.”

Ryouta actually lets out a light chuckle. He doesn’t mean to, he just… does it.

“May I ask what do you consider fun, Aomine-kun?”

“Tell you what.” Aomine turns around and look at all those fancy beverages on the table. He takes an olive of one of the glasses. “I bet that I can shoot this olive on that old guy’s drink, but you can’t.”

“What? What are you, five?”

“Oh? Giving up already, pretty boy? Afraid to lose?”

“..You’re on.”

If someone had told him that he, Ryouta Kise, the successful 25-years-old model, would actually try to shoot an olive into someone else’s drink during a serious business party… Well, who the hell would even think of such an odd experience to begin with? And yet, Ryouta finds himself grabbing his own olive while Aomine carefully targeted some old person's drink.

Independent adult life at its finest.

Ryouta doesn’t actually believe that Aomine is going to do it, until he throws the olive as if it is the tiniest basketball in the world and turns around quickly. A quiet “plop” is heard above the music, as well as the man's gasp.

“Oh my God, you actually did it!”

“Don’t look at them, you idiot, they’ll notice it was us!”

“They’ll notice it was _you_ ” Ryouta can’t help but left out another involuntary giggle. _What’s going on with him_? “I did nothing yet. Also, weren’t you afraid of being fired just a minute ago?”

“Now, now… They can’t fire me if they can’t prove I threw the olive. Your move, pretty boy.”

“I can believe that you did it!”

“What? You took an olive too, I thought you knew I was serious.”

“It was a joke!”

“You’re a joke!”

“Okay, how drunk are you?”

“Are you going to do it or not? Or you can’t?”

Ryouta frowns, offended. He hates it when somebody points out the things he can’t do. Of course he can. He can do whatever the hell he wants and better than everybody else, if he truly puts his mind on it.

Throwing olives at people’s drinks it’s no exception.

He chooses his target and concentrates. It’s immature, but he makes sure he copies Aomine’s movements exactly. He pretty sure he’s winning the Most Serious Way of Throwing an Olive first prize as his olive lands perfectly inside a glass full of champagne that spills in at least three people. Aomine snorts loudly.

“Nice work, pretty boy!” He says as he throws an arm around Ryouta’s shoulders. “I’d buy you a drink if we weren’t at a party with free alcohol.”

Ryouta smiles, even against his will. There is a strange sense of accomplishment that follows Aomine’s compliment. It’s not every day that your teen self’s sort of crush praises you.

“Guess you’ll have to take me to drink another day.”

Ryouta is joking. Of course he is. There is no way he meant that… in that way, at least. But as soon as the words leave his mouth, he realizes that he just sounded like he was trying to flirt with Aomine, which was not in any way what he wanted to do. He’s not flirting, not at all. Even though he catches Aomine’s grin hesitating by the corner of his eye. Ryouta doesn’t care at all. He’s not paying attention to Aomine’s reaction at his accidental flirting-that-wasn’t-flirting.

“That would be nice.” _Wait, what_? “I mean… Anything is better than this.” Aomine gestures vaguely pointing the whole party.

Ryouta forces another smile. Unless he’s wrong – and he’s usually not in this kind of situation – Aomine is trying to flirt back – not that Ryouta _was_ flirting in first place.

But of course Aomine is trying to flirt back. Ryouta is a goddamn prize. He’s beautiful, he’s a model. He can’t recall a single occasion when he was rejected that easy. Not at the first glance. No one who could see the perfect Ryouta Kise was able to dismiss him like that. If the problem was _catching_ someone, Ryouta would never have a problem.

But the problem was keeping someone by his side. And, as Shougo frequently remembered him of, no one would stay after knowing the real Ryouta.

When Ryouta opens his mouth to give an excuse and flee, he feels a pinch on his cheek.

“Ow!” He complains and Aomine lets go. “What was that for?”

“You’re forcing a smile again and it annoyed me.”

“How can you possibly know…?”

“It’s kind of obvious, okay? If you don’t feel like smiling, just don’t. It feels like you’re mocking me.”

“This” Ryouta points at his own face “is what I do for a living. Would you mind not harming it?”

“Please. You won’t stop being pretty just because of that. It’s barely red. Now, why don’t we go after some fresh air?”

“Go after fresh air?”

“Yeah. The porch and stuff. If we get away of all these people, you’ll stop making that annoying face, won’t you?”

Aomine grabs another glass from the table and makes his way to the porch and Ryouta finds himself following him even though he doesn’t have to. Isn’t that the perfect excuse to get away? Maybe find Kasamatsu and ask to go home. He got over his obsession about Daiki Aomine years ago, when he graduated from high school and left basketball for good. He should not be flirting with some childhood acquaintance – he is not – and he has nothing to do with the fact that Aomine turned out to be a weirdo. He should go back and go find Kasamatsu.

Ryouta doesn’t turn around to leave.

“What’s your problem with people’s smiles, you freak?”

“I don’t have a problem with people’s smiles. I have a problem with fake smiles.”

“You photograph models. Do you think we’re having actual fun when we randomly laugh to the camera?”

“Nah. But you’re not modeling right now, are you? So you can chill.”

Ryouta sighs. This conversation isn’t getting them anywhere, so he changes the subject:

“Why are you a photographer anyway? You used to be a genius player… or something like that” He tries to hide his somewhat creepy knowledge about Aomine “If someone had asked me, I would say that you’d go pro.”

“Nah. I love basketball, but going pro would fuck things up, you know? I can get really competitive and when I get _too_ competitive… Well, things aren’t as fun.”

The porch is blissfully empty,

Suddenly, Ryouta feels a little bit better. He’s still a guy with a really fucked up personality doomed with the shittiest romantic relationship of the Universe, but there, with the mild night breeze caressing his skin and in the company of Aomine, he feels like his 15 year-old self again. Just a positive and bubbly teenager who is very good looking and is just starting to enjoy life. A teenager that isn’t aware of how much of a train wreck disguised as a daydream is his future.

A few moments of comfortable silence later, Aomine calmly asks:

“Mind if I ask why you were so upset?”

Ryouta eyes him. He would usually deny that he wasn’t as happy as everybody believed – his personal life isn’t Aomine business at all – but, not only he is almost sure that Aomine would see right through his poor attempts of denial, he doesn’t want to deny it. Everything he had ever done was to deny: he denied that he was utterly hurt by Shougo’s words when he arrived at Kasamatsu’s house. He denied that there was something wrong with him when Midorima called. He lied when Takao-kun asked if he was okay. Something compelled Ryouta to say the truth for once.

“I don’t. You can ask whatever you want, but I’m not sure if I am answering.” He shoots a bright smile to Aomine.

“Oh, jeez. Are you trying to be sexy and mysterious now?”

“Is it working?” He waves his long eyelashes in a mocking way, but, surprisingly, he catches a slight blush on Aomine’s dark skin.

His heart pounds a little. He shouldn’t be this excited about getting some guy’s attention. It isn’t that hard for him to get anyone’s attention. He should stop. He will stop immediately.

“You know” Aomine pouts and looks away grumpily. He’s definitely blushing a little. “It would work better if I hadn’t just watched you launch a goddamn olive on someone’s drink”

Kise laughs and his chest feels lighter. Oh God, this has to stop right now. He’s going to leave now. He’s now telling Aomine that he has to meet his agent and he’s going home. This party sucked, anyway.

“I gotta… Aomine-kun, do you have your cellphone with you?” _What is he doing?_

“Huh? Of course I do.”

“Can you lend me?”

With a puzzled look, Aomine takes his phone of his pocket, unlocks it and hands it to Ryouta. He doesn’t know why he’s doing this. He definitely shouldn’t be. But he saves his number on Aomine’s phone anyway. His actual number, not his modeling number. The number that only a few people have, not the number he gives to work acquaintances. He hands the phone back.

“That’s how you can solve the mystery, if you feel like it. Now I got to go.”

Aomine stares at his phone screen almost in awe. He should be, of course. Ryouta doubtlessly is.

“See you around, Aomine-kun.” And with that, he turns around without waiting for an answer. He doesn’t need one. What he did now was just plainly wrong. Is not that he never made out some of his model friends when he was drunk, but that was different. Meaningless and without any thoughts. Now he just deliberately flirted and gave his phone number to a guy when he’s completely sober, even though he has a boyfriend.

A boyfriend that kind of kicked him out of their home, but still. It is wrong to flirt with people when you're taken.

_Then why does he feel so pleased with himself about it?_


	2. Denial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's official: I can't take Aomine seriously.  
> I don't know why. He's just all dumbness and inappropriate jokes and I'm really sorry about that.  
> Aomine's point of view DOES NOT reflect the author's thoughts.  
> Anyway, if you're wondering what happens to Aomine after he wins a supermodel's number, here you go. If you were not... I'm really sorry, but that's what he have for today.  
> Decided to post the chapter a day earlier because I've been writing non-stop, but, in case anyone is wondering, I'll try to be updating every Saturday.  
> Now I blabbered enough, enjoy the reading!

It’s six in the morning and the sun didn’t rise yet, although this doesn't stop the birds on his window to chirp annoyingly loud. For the first time, Daiki doesn't want to shoot all of them. Usually, the birds start with their ungodly noise at that hour and they work better than any alarm that Kagami could set up for him. They also make Daiki experience such a enormous anger that he doesn't even bother in going back to sleep. The fury wakes Daiki up usually, but not today. Today there is neither anger nor annoyance. There is just a strange numb feeling of fear when he realizes that he didn't sleep. Not even a minute.

He didn't _sleep_.

That has to be a sign that the apocalypse is coming, because, if anything, Daiki Aomine loves to sleep. He’s better at sleeping than anybody else. He can sleep for more than 24 hours straight if they let him. But today he didn’t sleep. And everything because of a stupid sad model.

Daiki doesn't know why the fuck he did what he done. He didn’t even wanted to go to that stupid party, but Satsuki annoyed the hell outta him because _she_ wanted to go see some models, claiming that seeing celebrities was the only perk of Daiki's temporary job. As soon as they got there, the little traitor left Daiki alone and the only reason why he didn’t leave was all of those free drinks. He could blame it on the alcohol, but he wasn't not even close to drunk when he did it. He barely drank two glasses of a simple white wine when he saw that blond model.

He was never a sensible, smart one, but he always knew when people were faking smiles. Satsuki often said that he was like a dog that feels when people are upset. Daiki once put a frog on her head for this.

Anyway, he saw the smile on that stranger's face and if felt so painful, so annoying… He just blurted out all of that bullshit and started a conversation. It was not that the guy was ugly. Daiki was very aware – more than he would like to be, actually – that the guy was very handsome, and so was his smile. His teeth were so straight and white that they could've blinded someone. Yet it felt so wrong…! Daiki couldn't help it. It was almost like the guy was screaming inside. It was impossible to ignore him.

Daiki didn’t expect that guy to play along with his childish little prank, but he did. It was surprising, in a very nice way, to see such a cool looking guy losing his composure just for a few laughs. It was nice and fun and then the guy started to hit on Daiki.

Oh God, what the hell was that? Daiki grabs his pillow and press it against his face.

“Rise and shine, _Aomine-kun_.” The door of his room opens and he hears when his roommate opening his curtains. “Attempting suicide this early in the morning? C’mon, Aomine, we don’t have all day. If you’re not getting up, I’m going without you and you’ll never get in the police academy because you’re out of shape.”

Daiki groans. Of course that bastard is up and well-rested. He probably slept nicely. Stupid Kagami.

“Get your ass of the bed, Aomine.”

“Fuck off, Kagami.”

“What’s with you? I know you’re a lazy stupid ass, but you know you need training and…”

“I'm not okay.” Aomine complains.

That catches Kagami's attention. Aomine feels it when Kagami sits on the corner of his bed.

“What's up? You went to a party with Momoi-san last night, didn't you? Are you hungover? I told you not to drink in the middle of the week, man…”

“No, Kagami, you don't understand.” Daiki lets go of the pillow and sits up. Kagami is eyeing him in a concerned way. “A guy hit on me last night.”

Kagami's worried expression becomes an angry one faster that a lamp being turned on.

“Aomine, I swear to God, if you make _another_ homophobic joke, I’m writing that homosexuality is a sin with permanent marker on your bare chest and throwing you shirtless in the middle of a gay bar. Momoi-san said she already told you about limits and…”

“Jesus fucking Christ, this is not a homophobic joke! It’s what happened to me last night!”

“Then what's the big deal? A guy hit on you. He didn’t abuse you or something, did he? It's not like he contaminated you with gay germs or something.”

“Actually… he did. I caught the gay, Kagami.”

“You…” Kagami is starting to look a little scared. “You can't catch the gay, dude, that’s not how things work.”

“Then why the hell I liked it when he flirted with me? He gave me his goddamn number and I couldn't sleep at night because I'm actually considering calling him.”

“I… I don't know how to respond that.”

“I caught y _our_ gay. I should have known that living with a homo who is homo with my best _homo_ … I mean, best friend would be a bad influence. What would grandma Aomine say?”

“It’s too early in the morning for me to deal with this, I didn’t sign up for this bullshit.”

“What are you doing?”

Kagami doesn't reply, he just grabs his phone on his pocket and dials a number. Aomine stares in puzzled silence while Kagami waits, phone on ear. After a few seconds, the person he is calling picks up.

“Momoi-san? It’s me, Kagami.” A brief pause. Daiki can hear Satsuki's complaining. “Yes, I know what time is it, but your son just came out as bisexual and he's making homophobic jokes again and I’m not dealing with him. Yes. Yes. Wait a second.” Kagami hands the phone to Daiki. “She wants to talk to you.”

In another occasion, Daiki would be pissed off with Kagami. He thought that they had a silent agreement that calling Satsuki was cheating – and it was kind of a dick move – but he is so lost and sleep deprived – he had never spent a _whole night_ without sleeping – that he doesn't care. He just grabs the phone and says a quiet “Satsuki?” while Kagami simply leaves the room, probably going for his morning jog without Daiki.

“Dai-chan, it's six in the morning, I didn't understand a single thing that Kagamin has said, but whatever you're doing that made him call me at this ungodly hour… _stop.”_

“I tried to stop it, Satsuki, but I don’t think it’s possible. I caught the gay.”

“What? Wait, you sound actually bad. This is why you were acting weird last night? Hang in there, okay? I'm washing my face then we'll talk.” And Daiki obediently waits, which only proves that his sleeping deprived self is not actually himself at all. A few moments later, he hears Satsuki picking the phone again. “Okay, I'm awake now. Sort of. Now tell me what's wrong.”

Daiki actually tells her about what he did when they were apart from each other at the party. He tells her how he randomly picked Kise in the middle of everyone, adding some unnecessary details, like how fake was his smile and how sad were his eyes. He evens narrates how they played with the olives, something that he would never say to Satsuki, because she would scold him for being such a stupid child, and he told her how Kise started to flirt and his eyes looked really nice and his face was so pretty and he gave Daiki his number and left just like Cinderella, leaving Daiki behind, confused, which lead him to drink until he was almost passing out.

“Like Cinderella.” Satsuki repeats slowly. “ _Oookay_ … This is… normal. I think… Dai-chan, I think you’re still drunk and emotional right now.”

“And sleep deprived.”

“Yes. But you’re not gay. And it’s not possible to become gay because you’re living with a homosexual or met one. Okay? Now go to sleep.”

“Sleep. I can do that.”

“Of course you can. Now lie down and sleep.”

Daiki nods, as if Satsuki can see him, puts Kagami’s phone away, and lie down as she said. She also said that he didn’t catch the gay, so she must have a logical explanation for Daiki’s behavior. He can sleep peacefully now.

* * *

 

When Daiki wakes up, he feels anything but peaceful. He’s not well-rested at all and the only thing that keeps him from going straight back to sleep is that his head hurts like a bitch. He considers screaming for Kagami and asking him to bring him some medicine – and some water, for fuck’s sake, his throat is so dry he might as well be dying – but the sole idea of screaming makes his head hurt even more, so he painfully gets up.

He hears the laughter when he’s by the door and he recognizes both of the voices: Kagami and Satsuki are cracking up together in the kitchen, at the dining table. The sound is as obnoxious as if they were shrieking like birds at six in the morning.

“No… I can’t believe he actually… Oh God…!” Kagami snorts, choking with laughter.

“I swear to God he actually called the guy Cinderella!” Satsuki cracks up.

The word Cinderella brings memories. Lots of memories that Daiki hopes were nothing but drunken dreams, even though, judging by Satsuki and Kagami amused conversation, it wasn't. He actually was hit on by a guy and he liked it and he wanted to see the guy again. Daiki groaned painfully, which dragged Satsuki's and Kagami's attention to him.

“Oh, Dai-chan, you’re finally awake!” Satsuki manages, wiping tears of laughter of her eyes.

“Here, dude.” Kagami’s smirking as he hands some pills to Daiki. “I thought you’re going to need this. Momoi-san was telling me about your Cinderella crush.”

Daiki groans again and refuses to reply. He focuses his mind on getting a glass of water without dying, which seems like a harder task than originally planned. Once he took the medicine and drank as much water as possible, he feels like throwing up, so he lets himself fall in the seat next to Kagami. If he’s going to puke, it better be on Kagami.

“So… You didn't tell us who's the lucky guy that made you gay.” Kagami starts and Daiki would punch him if he weren’t feeling so bad. Instead, he glares at Satsuki.

“You said that I'm not homo.” He accuses, as if it was Satsuki's fault that he ended up attracted by some kind of male siren. Since she dragged him to that stupid party and left him alone there, it might as well be her fault.

“Well, technically, you're not.” She smiles apologetically and Kagami snorts. “You still like girls, so the word is bisexual, as far as I know.”

He moans lazily and drops his head on the table.

“What the fuck is wrong with that guy? Is it legal for a man to be that pretty? I know he's a model and stuff, but that was fucking unnecessary.”

“Right, Dai-chan. What's his name, anyway?”

“I won't tell you. You guys are going to make fun of me. Fuck off, both of you.”

“Aw, don't be like that, we're your friends. We're here to support you.”

“I said fuck off, Satsuki!”

“Fine! Keep your little crush as a secret if you think is more romantic that way, I don't care. But you're going to call him, aren't you?”

When Daiki only make angry noises as response, Satsuki sighs.

“Leave him alone, Momoi-san.” Kagami finally speaks up. “He doesn't look like it, but his a grown-up. He'll handle this by himself.”

“Fine.” Daiki can almost hear the pout on her voice. “But, if you need anything, we're here, okay, Dai-chan?”

More noises. Satsuki groans and leaves him be, as Kagami suggested. If only Daiki could get rid of his memories that easily…

* * *

 

He doesn't let go. Of anything. On the next days, he simply can’t get Kise's smile of his head. It doesn't help that Kise's one hell of a popular motherfucker and his face is, like, everywhere.

Daiki wants to watch a game on TV? There is Ryouta Kise and his ridiculous pretty face faking a perfect smile as he announces some kind of men make up or shit, and Daiki can’t actually hear the ad because he’s too busy trying not to drool as Kise glares at him from the screen with those stupid golden eyes. Who the hell has golden eyes anyway? Anime guys? Jesus Christ. He wants to listen to music on the radio? Guess which idol just released his first single that is playing non-stop? Yup. Ryouta Kise. He wants to go on a jog with Kagami? There is a goddamn outdoor of a giant Ryouta Kise, shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of unbuttoned jeans and biting his lower lip. Daiki would expect that the vision of his bare torso would calm him down, because it was the ultimate proof that Kise’s a dude, despite of his pretty face, but, if anything, it makes it worse. Aomine snorts, finds himself unable to keep running and almost scares Kagami to death.

He actually asks himself if there was this ridiculous amount of Ryouta Kise out there before the party or if he's actually some kind of demon getting out of his way to lure Daiki into the homosexual life style.

Satsuki finds out who he is on the second day and she is rudely surprised that a celebrity like Ryouta Kise actually flirted with Daiki.

“Just call him.” She sighs “I bet you'll never get such an awesome man interested in you again in your whole life. Ryouta Kise probably isn't the kind of guy that waits for people to call him. If you don't hurry, he'll lose the interest.”

“True.” Kagami yells from the kitchen.

“Shut up, Kagami! Focus on the dinner!” Daiki yells back and ignores Kagami's threats of spitting on his food. “It's not that simple, Satsuki, I can't just throw away my heterosexuality like that because a pair of golden eyes.”

“Darling, your heterosexuality kissed you good-bye on the very second you started thinking about golden eyes.”

“Also true!”

“Kagami, SHUT UP! And leave me be, Satsuki, maybe I don't want to call him.”

“Dai-chan, you got all red because you saw him on an ad five minutes ago. I know you. You can't get him off your head and it's plainly obvious. I promise it won't hurt. He has already shown his interest in you. Now it's your move.”

“I… I don't know. What would Mai-chan think?”

“Mai-chan wouldn't care, _Dumbmine_ , she doesn't know you exist!”

Daiki gets up ready to go to the kitchen and beat the shit outta Kagami, but Satsuki stops him:

“Wait. Lend me your phone. I'll call my boyfriend to pick me up. I can't stay with your guys for dinner today, I have work to do.”

“Where's your phone?” Daiki asks, already reaching for the phone in his pocket and handing it to her.

“Uncharged.” She shrugs.

If Daiki were paying attention, he probably would have remembered that Satsuki never goes out without her cellphone charger.

* * *

 

On the third day, Daiki has a wet dream.

He dreams that Kise just appears on his apartment wearing nothing but those stupid jeans he’s wearing on that outdoor and they make out on the couch. Daiki grabs his butt and give it a good squeeze and he’s about to pull those jeans out when Kise bites his ear and whispers: “Is it okay even if I don’t have boobs?”

Daiki wakes up hard as hell and very aware that he's not heterosexual anymore. At all. And he wants to make his dream come true as soon as possible, so he decides he'll call Kise.

Maybe after the breakfast. Or after work. Or even after lunch. He’s definitely calling him anytime now.

When he and Kagami sit together to watch basketball on that afternoon, he keeps playing with his phone between his fingers and doesn't notice that Kagami looks kind of nervous.

“Hm… Hey, you remember that we're meeting Tetsuya to play later, don’t you?” Kagami asks after a while.

“Huh? Yeah. Even though is kind of lame just the three of us.”

“There is no helping it, Tatsuya says he can't come today because he has an appointment with Murasakibara.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

There is a short pause where Kagami takes a deep breath.

“Hey, Aomine. There is something I need to tell you.”

For the first time, Daiki notices that his roommate is a little unquiet. He stops spinning his phone between his fingers.

“What is it?”

“I’m moving out.”

“What? Why? I have started washing the dishes and all instead of licking them clean, like you said!”

“What. No, dude! I mean, it’s great that you stopped with that, but I’m not moving out because I think you’re a shitty roommate. You are, but that’s not the point. I’m moving out because Tetsuya and I decided to live together.”

“… No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, we did, we found a nice flat near Tetsuya’s school, so we…”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re getting married. That's illegal. Gays can't get married.”

“You've got to be kidding me.” Kagami face palms “You’re the one who’s been thirsting over a male model and now you're-“

“I’m telling Satsuki!” Daiki unlocks his phone. He has Satsuki's number on speed dial, so it takes less than a second. “I can't believe my best friend is marrying my worst enemy!”

“Your worst… _Who the hell do you think has been cleaning your mess and cooking for you for the past years, you bastard_?”

“And who is going to cook for me now that Tetsu betrayed me? Huh?”

Kagami sighs impatiently and gets up, leaving Daiki alone with his phone on his ear. He doesn't really know why he's calling Satsuki, it just feels right. When he hears that she picked up, he doesn't even wait for her to talk, he just blurts out:

“ _Satsuki_! How could you let this happen?! You should have predicted this and warned me! Do you have any idea of what is happening?” He hears a soft noise in the background, but doesn't pay too much attention to it, he just keeps ranting:  “They're getting married, Satsuki! That's not even legal in our country! And it wasn't even Tetsu who told me! It was Kagami who just announced he's moving out next week because he's now married to Tetsu! Like, not officially married, but they're moving in together! Sharing a house! How dare they? How could Tetsu betray me like this? He’s been my best friend for years! I mean… My second best friend, since you’re the first, but my first male best friend, okay? That means a lot. He should be grateful that he has me. But that’s not the point!”

Satsuki didn’t interrupt him yet, which is strange. Maybe she was napping and Daiki caught her still half-asleep?

“He’s my best friend for centuries and then that douchebag comes from fucking America just to mess up my life and to fucking marry Tetsu! What did Tetsu see in him? How can he even date – say live with! – someone with those ugly ass eyebrows? How can my best friend marry my fucking nemesis?”

Then he hears the most adorable sound, a clear, pure laughter… that belongs to a man. And it isn't Satsuki's boyfriend for sure. He stays in shocked silence while the person on the other side laughs and laughs. It takes him a few seconds to say something.

“You’re not Satsuki.” He mutters.

“No…” The man takes a deep breath. “No, I am not. Sorry, Aomine-kun, I would have warned you, but you wouldn't stop talking…”

“Who is…?” But before he finishes the question, he already knows. _No_. Oh, God, _why_. “Wait. Your voice. Kise. Is this Ryouta Kise?”

“Yes, you guessed!”

“Oh.” Daiki wants to die. He wants to die so bad. “This is not awkward. Like… at all. This is totally how I pictured calling you for the first time.”

 “Don’t sweat it. You seem to be under a lot of stress.”

“I am! But I thought my fingers already knew how to dial my best friend's number without looking at the phone. I never thought I would say this, but I failed.”

It’s impossible, though. He’s pretty sure he just speed dialed her. Satsuki’s shortcut has ever been the same. Then, what the hell?

“Right.” Kise chuckles lightly “Rather than your fingers, I am more concerned with the fact that you seem to have a nemesis.”

Daiki pouts.

“No, you don’t understand. This is a very serious matter. That guy is the enemy.”

“Oh, really? How come?”

“You see. Here I am living my life peacefully with my friends. Tetsu was my partner, okay? The shadow to my light and shit. And Tetsu goes to another school. Okay. Cool. Kind of a dick move, but we’re still friends, right? And then this motherfucker climbs up of a hell hole…”

“I thought he came from America.”

“That’s what I said! And then Tetsu is all head over heels over him and his stupid eyebrows. Not that I care about who Tetsu dates, like, whatever. But does he have to date the guy who keeps challenging me and acting he’s my peer when he just… How can Tetsu even _kiss_ him? When he opens his eyes, he will be face to face with those terrifying _weirdbrows_!”

“Oh my God!” And Kise is laughing hysterically again.

“Yeah, ‘m glad you find this disaster funny.” Daiki wants to be mad at him for laughing, but his laughter is too adorable.

 “I’m sorry.” Kise apologizes and Daiki can hear that he’s trying hard to stop chuckling “Please, go ahead and vent. I’ll listen carefully to your complaints about this eyebrow nemesis.”

But… What if, instead of ranting some more about Kagami, Daiki took the opportunity? He considers his chances for a second. He humiliated himself, but hey! It’s whatever! Nothing he can’t handle. Besides, he really wants to eat that model alive.

“I’ll do better than that. Are you free right now?”

The five seconds of silence that follow his words are painful.

“Maybe. Why do you ask?”

“I was calling Satsuki not to just complain, but to ask her to join me. I’m meeting that couple of betrayers and I want to kick their asses on the court so they’ll learn their lesson. Why don’t you come too? You can kick their asses with me.”

“Basketball? How do you know I’m that good of a player?”

“Hah! Trust me. You’ll be teaming up with me. There’s no way we’d lose.”

“Hm… You seem confident. Now I’m curious if you’re really that good or it’s all talk” Another few seconds of silence. “Okay, sounds like fun. Where do I meet you guys?”

He did it. He actually did it. When Kagami comes back, he finds Daiki staring at his phone as if he never saw something like that before.

“What now?” Kagami raised one of his weirdbrows.

“I… I think Satsuki changed her shortcut on my phone and I called someone else by accident.”

“Okay. So?”

“So… I think I asked Ryouta Kise to hang out with us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for now, folks!  
> If everything goes according to the plan, next Saturday you will have another chapter!  
> Thank you so much for the lovely comments, your support is what keeps me writing!  
> Also thank you for the kudos or even if you just read until here. You attention is very appreciated.


	3. Loneliness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a whole chapter of Aomine nonsense, we're back to our main character, Kise. Also... here he is.  
> The one that everyone (me) was waiting for.  
> ...KAZUNARI TAKAO! *audience cheering loudly*  
> I think the potential Kise/Takao friendship (also the Midorima/Kise friendship) is shamefully underrated, so here I am, making them besties!  
> I had a lot of fun writing this, so I really hope you guys can enjoy as well.  
> EDIT: I fucking forgot to give a title to the chapter so here I am. Editing it. Slay me.

When Ryouta was in school, he dated an awful lot of people.

He got his first girlfriend when he was twelve. It was nothing but a cute little relationship with a girl from his class. She confessed and Ryouta, whose friends were all starting to slowly get interested in girls, thought he could as well be the first one to get himself a girlfriend, mostly to make everybody else jealous. They started dating and, for a whole week, all that they did was hold hands. Ryouta liked how mature his friends started seeing him as and his girlfriend loved how jealous _her_ friends were by seeing that she had such a handsome boyfriend.

Nevertheless, time passed and soon enough Ryouta’s good looks weren’t enough anymore. She wanted to be spoiled, she wanted his full attention, and she wanted as soon as requested. Ryouta refused. And then she broke up with him, claiming that Ryouta’s personality was the worst.

That’s how it started.

Ryouta was quite popular, of course, so finding a new girlfriend wasn’t a problem, not at all. The real issue was keeping her. Just like his first, she wanted Ryouta to do as she pleased, to grant her selfish wishes and be there for her all the time, after all what boyfriends are for? How could he care more about his own damn business rather than his precious girlfriend’s needs? Why was he always smiling to other girls? Why did he get so upset when she was jealous? It was her duty as a girlfriend to keep him whipped, wasn't it? In the end, she told him that _he_ was the worst. Ryouta was the one to break up this time.

When he started dating a guy, it was more out of curiosity than anything else. He had guys confessing to him before, of course, but when he decided to actually date one it was solely because he was feeling lonely. If he had a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend, he could have the nice kisses and cuddles and wouldn’t have to worry about cherishing them every single minute. He wanted to be cherished instead, he wanted to be spoiled. But a boyfriend was no good either. He wanted Ryouta to stop hanging out with girls so much and to join _his_ club and spend all the time with him and not to focus that much on his starting model career… Ryouta refused. So the guy told him that Ryouta was not what he expected him to be and broke up.

And the next girlfriend was the same. So was the next boyfriend. And the next, and the next… All that Ryouta wanted was someone to admire him for his beauty and talent, someone who would make him laugh and also make out with him when he was feeling down, something like those cheesy drama couples he often saw on TV... But he also wanted someone who would let him be free, because what he hated the most was being held down.

He was almost done with high school and every lover he had ever had always finished things telling him that he was selfish and uncaring. That he need to pay more attention to his lover’s needs, that he was supposed to put more effort in the relationship, that he was too absorbed with his own stuff – modeling and basketball – so he was never fully _there._ Ryouta learned that there was something wrong with him inside, and therefore there was no perfect romance waiting on his future. Even with his good looks and talent, he could end up alone if he were too… Well… Himself.

Ryouta is still terrified of the idea of being lonely.

“Ryou-chan” A familiar voice calls from the kitchen and Ryouta wakes up from his melancholic daydream “you guys are out of milk.”

“Really?” He retorts, not really interested. Stretched on the couch like a cat, Ryouta couldn’t care less about the absence of milk in Kasamatsu’s house.

His friend, Takao, comes back and sits next to him. Ryouta lets his legs rest on his lap. None of them feel like they’re invading each other’s personal space, they’re used to be like this.

Kazunari Takao is the main reason why Ryouta became friends with Midorima back then. Takao was always there to justify Midorima’s oddness and he was a pretty okay guy to be around. Ryouta got used to hang out with both of them, Takao more often than Midorima.

The thing that he loves the most about Takao is that he never makes unnecessary questions. When Ryouta called him and asked to come by, Takao only questioned why he was at Kasamatsu’s. Ryouta simply said “Fought with Shougo” and that was it. Takao came without asking further questions and leaving Midorima behind. Ryouta was also grateful for that, because he wouldn’t stand that nerd lecturing him and suggesting solutions to his problems, which is pretty much what Midorima does whenever he finds out that Shougo and Ryouta had a fight.

“I’m so bored.” Takao complains. “You should have brought your games with you when you ran away, Ryou-chan.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time.”

“Already planning the next fight?” He chuckles lightly. “Thought you were more positive than that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Takacchi.”

“Fine. Then where is your babysitter?”

“Kasamatsu-senpai? He had a meeting or something like that, so he left me here alone. That’s why I called you.”

“Am I only your backup plan for when your beloved senpai isn’t available?” Takao gasps, faking shock. At that, Ryouta laughs a little. “So mean, Ryou-chan. Anyway, who the hell holds a meeting on a Saturday afternoon? Don’t people from the modeling industry have lives?”

“You’re the one to talk. You came here only to eat and complain about the lack of milk because you don’t have anything else to do.”

“Am I bothering you? I can leave, you know.”

“Nooo, stay here with me, Takao-sama, I would die of loneliness if you left me~!”

“Aw, I love you too, Ryou-chan. But I’m sorry, I belong to Shin-chan already, I can’t cure your loneliness.”

“I never thought there was going to be a day when I would lose to Midorimacchi in this aspect.” Ryouta shakes his head, pulling a face. Takao laughs. “What does that nerd have that I don’t?”

“I have no idea, to be honest. What’s with that, Ryou-chan? I should totally fall for a pretty guy like you instead.”

Takao and Midorima aren’t actually dating, as far as Ryouta knows, still he also knows that there’s a little bit of truth on Takao’s jokes. He has no idea why, but his friend is head over heels for that weird glasses guy. Since Takao doesn’t pry into Ryouta’s personal business, he doesn’t interfere on Takao’s either, but he keeps wondering if they will eventually get together. Probably yes, after all Takao is the only person that can deal with Midorima. Ryouta wants to ask what’s so good about that horoscope freak, but he’s dating Shougo. He’s not the one to talk.

Other than that, Takao’s words make him think about the last person that called him a “pretty boy”.

It has been three days since he fled home and since he found Aomine in that stupid party. He thought about their conversation way too often and it wasn’t even the most interesting of the conversations. They just used olives as basketballs and glasses as baskets and gazed at the pollution in the sky. It’s true that Ryouta gave his number to Aomine, but hopefully his phone broke soon after Ryouta left and he’s never going to hear about Aomine again, because Ryouta sure doesn’t like how dreamy are his thoughts getting when he remembers that strange encounter.

“But you know what would totally make sense, Ryou-chan?” Takao calls him back to reality. “If a pretty guy like you fell for your caretaker.”

 _There it is_ , Ryouta thinks and sighs. Takao doesn’t usually put his nose on Ryouta’s business… Except when it comes to suggest that Ryouta should totally break up with Shougo and get together with Kasamatsu. Actually, Takao tries to get Ryouta paired up with every friend that he has, but, since he and Kasamatsu are always together, Kasamatsu is the most common victim.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Senpai is like an older brother to me.”

“Aw, c’mon, you guys are not actually related and he’s always there for you.”

“That’s because he is my _agent_. It’s literally his _job_ to take care of me.”

“Why do you still call him senpai, anyway? He was your senpai for, like, a year when you were sixteen.”

“Out of habit, I guess?”

“Fine, so you don’t like your senpai. What about the olive guy?”

Ryouta groans. He definitely shouldn’t have told Takao about his brief, yet remarkable, encounter with Aomine.

“Forget about it, I’ll never see him again!”

“But you want to! I saw your face when you told me about it, you have a crush on him, don’t lie!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I was just flirting around because I was frustrated, okay? And… Maybe he’s kind of hot, but that’s not the point.”

“Ryou-chan…”

Before Takao can argue any further, an obnoxious rock song blasts from his pocket. His phone is ringing. Ryouta can bet anything that it is Midorima. And that he’s in trouble.

“Yes, Shin-chan? Where? I‘m hanging out with Ryou-chan. … Yes, Ryouta Kise-chan. No, not really... Wait, what? You’re _where?”_ Bingo. Ryouta moves his legs out of the way at the same time that Takao gets up lazily. “You gotta be kidding me... I wonder if I should…” He chuckles. Ryouta can hear Midorima roaring.  “Okay, okay, don’t get mad, Shin-chan, I’m coming! Jeez.”  Takao hangs up, sighing before getting up and slowly walking towards the entrance to grab his coat. Ryouta follows him.

“Everything okay, Takacchi?”

“Wonderful _._ ” Takao sighs again while putting his shoes on “Sorry, Ryou-chan, you’ll have to endure your loneliness this time. I’m going to pick up that loser.”

“You know what would make sense, Takacchi? If a nerd like Midorimacchi fell for his babysitter… Ooops, I mean, you!”

“Ha-ha.” He rolls his eyes. “See you around, Ryou-chan.”

And he hurries to save his someday-to-be-boyfriend without bothering to tell Ryouta what kind of ruckus Midorima got himself into this time. Ryouta locks the door and goes back to the couch.

Now he’s alone with his thoughts and has nothing to do. Who said that a model life was all glamour and parties?

He doesn’t want to think about Shougo or to see him, but he wants to go home already. Not that Kasamatsu’s apartment is bad, it’s actually good to be on a place where nobody is going to yell at him for what he watches on Netflix or what he wore during the last shoot. Kasamatsu will eventually hit him in the head or kick him in the butt for lazing around, but he always hold himself back, never really hurts Ryouta. Shougo, on other hand…

Ryouta wants to know why Shougo didn’t come after him yet. It’s been three days. Their biggest fight lasted about two weeks. His pride would be totally crushed if he went back home before Shougo asked for forgiveness, so he tells himself to endure a little while and… And what? Can he actually live like this forever? Anyhow, it’s not like he has another option. For a wicked guy like him, there is never going to be a nice boyfriend like Takao or Kasamatsu. They can endure Ryouta as friends, but, even if Ryouta was attracted to one of them like this, they would never want to spend their lives with him.

That’s why he hates being alone and bored. He starts to unnecessarily question his life choices and to hate himself even more.

Ryouta sighs heavily, but, before he can overthink things any further, something buzzes loudly on his pocket, startling him. He almost forgot his phone was there because that phone in particular never rings – it’s his personal number, after all, only close friends like Takao and Midorima have it – and he wonders if Kasamatsu left the meeting earlier. When he reaches for the phone and eyes the screen, his heart skips a beat. It’s an unknown number.

Could it be that…?

No, no. Definitely not. It was probably someone calling him by mistake, someone that would freak out if could recognize Ryouta Kise’s voice. He takes a deep breath and picks it up. He opens his mouth to say “Hello?” but, before he can, a deep voice barks:

“ _Satsuki_!” It’s Aomine. Ryouta holds his breath. His voice absolutely shouldn’t sound that familiar, since they talked _once,_ but Ryouta does recognize his voice as soon as he starts speaking _._ Other than that, Aomine sounds more indignant than Kise had ever heard. “How could you let this happen?! You should have predicted this and warned me! Do you have any idea of what is happening?”

He’s taken aback by the surprise and it takes him a moment to realize that, whoever Aomine thinks he’s talking to… It’s not Ryouta. He probably wrong dialed him. Kise does want to warn him of his mistake, he truly does, but he barely articulates a quiet “Uh…”  before Aomine is angrily blabbering in high speed:

“They’re getting married, Satsuki! That’s not even legal in our country! It wasn’t even Tetsu who told me! It was Kagami who just announced he’s moving out next week because he’s now married to Tetsu! Like, not officially married, but they’re moving in together! Sharing a house! How dare they? How could Tetsu betray me like this? He’s been my best friend for years! I mean… My second best friend, since you’re the first, but my first male best friend, okay? That means a lot. I'm _so_ important, he should be grateful that he has me. But that’s not the point!”

At this point, Ryouta is biting his lower lip not to laugh. He has no idea of what Aomine is talking about, but he sounds so offended for someone who is rating best friends that is almost adorable.

“He’s my best friend for centuries and then that douchebag comes from fucking America just to mess up my life and to fucking marry Tetsu! What did Tetsu see in him? How can he even date – say live with! – someone with those ugly ass eyebrows? How can my best friend marry my fucking nemesis?”

At that, Ryouta hits his limit. He’s suddenly laughing harder than he should and louder than he can remember doing so. He’s probably heard funnier stories than Aomine’s utter disappointment with his so called best friend, but he can’t think of a single one right now. From the other side, Aomine stays in stunned silence while Ryouta cracks up until there are actual tears on his eyes.

“You’re not Satsuki.” Aomine finally manages.

“No…” Ryouta takes a deep breath in an attempt to hold his hysterical laughter “No, I am not. Sorry, Aomine-kun, I would have warned you, but you wouldn’t stop talking…”

“Who is…? Wait. Your voice. Kise. Is this Ryouta Kise?”

“Yes, you guessed!”

“Oh.” Another moment of silence. “This is not awkward. Like… at all. This is totally how I pictured calling you for the first time.”

_Did he picture how would be calling me?_

“Don’t sweat it.” Ryouta finds himself smiling in a reassuring way at no one. “You seem to be under a lot of stress.”

“I am! But I thought my fingers already knew how to dial my best friend’s number without looking at the phone. I never thought I would say this, but I failed.”

“Right.” Ryouta chuckles lightly “Rather than your fingers, I am more concerned with the fact that you seem to have a nemesis.”

“No, you don’t understand. This is a very serious matter. That guy is the enemy.”

“Oh, really? How come?”

“You see. Here I am living my life peacefully with my friends. Tetsu was my partner, okay? The shadow to my light and shit. And then Tetsu goes to another school. Okay. Cool. Kind of a dick move, but we’re still friends, right? And then this _motherfucker_ climbs up of a hell hole…”

“I thought he came from America.”

“That’s what I said! And then Tetsu is all head over heels for him and his stupid eyebrows. Not that I care about who Tetsu dates, like, whatever. But does he have to date the guy who keeps challenging me and acting he’s my peer when he just… How can Tetsu even _kiss_ him? When he opens his eyes, he will be face to face with those terrifying _weirdbrows_!”

“Oh my God!” Ryouta is laughing again. He can’t help it. Aomine’s resentful tone over some guy eyebrows is way to amusing.

“Yeah, ‘m glad you find this disaster funny.” He mumbles, but somehow Ryouta knows he’s not actually mad at him. If anything, Ryouta can swear Aomine is proud of himself for making him laugh.

“I’m sorry.” He apologizes, but it sounds way too halfhearted because he’s still chuckling. “Please, go ahead and vent. I’ll listen carefully to your complaints about this eyebrow nemesis.”

There is a short pause. Ryouta wonders if he was mistaken, to begin with, and Aomine is actually getting mad at him for mocking his anger, but he starts talking again before the blond can get actually worried:

“I’ll do better than that. Are you free right now?”

Ryouta bites his lip. Kasamatsu isn’t coming home any time soon, probably.

“Maybe. Why do you ask?”

“I was calling Satsuki not to just complain, but to ask her to join me. I’m meeting that couple of betrayers and I want to kick their asses at the court so they’ll learn their lesson. Why don’t you come too? You can kick their asses with me.”

“Basketball?” Ryouta feels excitement building up inside him “How do you know I’m that good of a player?”

“Hah! Trust me. You’ll be teaming up with me. There’s no way we’d lose.”

“Hm… You seem confident. Now I’m curious if you’re really that good or it’s all talk” He stops for a second, as if considering the invitation. “Okay, sounds like fun. Where do I meet you guys?”

He tells himself he is going only because of the basketball. Lying to himself is as easy as lying to others.

* * *

 

When Ryouta arrives, they’re already playing. It’s one street court on a park that luckily wasn’t _that_ far from Kasamatsu’s apartment – he only had to take a train and a cab, but there’s no way he's letting anyone know that. If someone asks, he was nearby anyway. – so there he was, wearing his old basketball shoes. It was almost a miracle that they’d still fit, because it has been years since he played his last match, and he simply has no heart to wear his special shoes at the gym for regular working out.

The first thing he sees is Aomine. A sigh of admiration leaves his mouth as he watches. _There it is_ , he thinks, the wild basketball style that caught him and made him love the sport so much. His biggest goal as a player was to defeat that style above everything else while, at the same time, he would never want to see that style losing.

He wonders if it was for the best that he never got to play against Aomine. He doesn’t know how it would feel like, if he would actually be able to do it.

Aomine is playing a one-on-one match against a guy with messy, weird reddish hair. It is impressive how fast they move, almost as if they’re predicting each other’s movements, and Ryouta can only stare in awe, the old admiration making his chest tight once again. _He wants to play. He wants to play so bad that_ …

“Hello. Can I help you?”

He yelps, startled, and looks at the person who just spoke. When the hell did that guy appear? Ryouta was so amazed by Aomine and his opponent that he didn’t notice he wasn’t the only one watching the match. In fact, aside from the guy who just talked to him, there is also a beautiful girl with long bright hair sitting on a bench near the court and staring at Ryouta with curiosity.

“Hm… Hi, I guess… I am… huh…”

“Kise!” Aomine, who had interrupted his game when he heard Ryouta’s shameful shriek, is approaching, the other guy following him. The girl on the bench gets up and comes closer to them as well.

“Aomine-kun.” Ryouta smiles.

“Finally. Let’s team up and…”

“Dai-chan.” The girl interrupts him “Don’t you think it would be nicer to introduce us to your friend first?”

“Fine.” Aomine rolls his eyes. “Everybody, this is Ryouta Kise. Kise, these are my stupid friends, Kagami, Tetsu and Satsuki.”

“Do it properly!” The girl – Satsuki – scolds, pinching him on the cheek, what makes him curse. “I’m Satsuki Momoi. These are Tetsuya Kuroko-kun and Taiga Kagami-kun.”

“It’s a pleasure” Kise shakes hands with the guy that was playing against Aomine. “Oh. I guess you’re the eyebrow nemesis.”

Kagami glares at Aomine.

“Did you talk about my… Dude, what’s your problem with my eyebrows?”

“They are kind of peculiar, Taiga-kun.” Kuroko points

“ _Whose side are you, you little bastard_?”

“Are we going to play or not? You know how to play, right, Kise?”

Ryouta smirks.

“Maybe a little. Let me just stretch first, okay?”

“The loser cooks dinner!” Aomine announces pointing at Kagami’s face.

“Then even _when_ I win, I lose, because your cooking skills suck.”

Momoi sighs heavily and makes her way back to the bench. By Ryouta’s side, Kuroko is also stretching, deliberately ignoring the fact that Aomine and Kagami are bickering and trading insults like a couple of kids.

“They’re always like this?” Ryouta asks.

“They’re worse. They only shut up when they’re playing.”

“They will shut up soon enough, then.” Ryouta smiles. “I’m ready.”

“Ugh! You’re impossible!” Kagami is still arguing with Aomine, but suddenly he turns around and glares at Kise. “I’m sorry, newbie, but I’m not going easy on you! I’m kicking both of your asses!”

 _Newbie_. Ryouta doesn’t know if he should laugh or feel offended.

Five minutes into their little game and he decides that he should definitely feel offended: Aomine has the ball, but he won’t pass it to Ryouta. Kagami tries to steal, but Aomine easily dribbles and is on his way to score when Kuroko simply appears out of nowhere and steals the ball. Not even Ryouta saw him coming: on one second, Aomine was running with the ball and, on the next moment, Kuroko simply teleported there and stole it. It was too fast to see properly, but the next thing Ryouta notices is that Kuroko has already passed the ball to Kagami. Aomine runs after them and he tries to take it back, but, at least once, Kagami is faster. He fakes a movement to the left, goes to the right and Aomine loses his chance. Kagami slam dunks the ball with a loud commemoration shout.

Aomine obviously isn’t the only exceptional player there. Ryouta feels a familiar frenzy building up inside his chest, an excitement he didn’t feel in years. He wants to score as well. The ball is with Aomine again, but both Kagami and Kuroko are marking him. Why don’t Aomine pass the ball to Ryouta? Did he forget that Ryouta is there? He has more than enough room to pass, so why…? He can only assume that Aomine is so concentrated in the game that he forgot about Ryouta’s presence. It’s stupid, but it happens, doesn’t it?

“Aomine-kun!” He calls out, trying to get Aomine’s attention.

“Don’t get in the way!” Aomine barks and manages to dribble the both of them.

Ah. He didn’t forget Ryouta. He simply doesn’t think Ryouta is a worthy player. He has never seen Ryouta play, he obviously think he’s just another stupid model with average athletic skills. Aomine has no idea about Ryouta’s talent, he’s only called Ryouta by coincidence and probably because Kuroko and Kagami wouldn’t want to play two against one, but Aomine has planned to play alone against the two of the since the very start.

Ryouta isn’t just pissed off. He’s _furious_. He doesn’t care that Aomine couldn’t just guess that Kise was a basketball player just by looking at him. It isn’t that rational or mature, it’s just anger burning inside his chest and making his adrenaline levels go up and up…

The next thing Ryouta notices is that he’s running towards Aomine. If he is going to play as if they’re not in the same team, Ryouta is going to show him what a terrible adversary he can be. If he concentrates, he can remember in detail how Kuroko moved after he appeared by Aomine’s side… And Ryouta steals the ball. The feeling is indescribable. Even after all this years, his gift has never disappeared. It was there all the time, just waiting for Ryouta to use it again. Nothing else matters except the ball on his hands and the basket in front of him. He senses more than he sees when Kagami comes after him and tries to take the ball back. Exactly like Kagami did, Ryouta fakes left, and goes right. The trick works. With a perfect copy of his opponent's movements, Ryouta dunks the ball.

He turns around and glares at Aomine, that is still paralyzed on the very next spot he was when Ryouta stole the ball from him, as if he never had someone to do something like that to him.

“I’m sorry, Aomine-kun.” He smirks, but he is almost sure that his cynical smile doesn’t reach his eyes. He is sure that his fury is still showing on his golden irises, like fire. His happy-go-lucky model persona is broken and he doesn’t care. “Was I in your way?"

Kuroko whistles. Kagami curses.

 “Well, well…” Aomine finally manages, a grin widening on his face. “Aren’t you full of surprises, pretty boy?”

There is more tension now and Ryouta is sure that the four of them are feeling it. Now the game is for real, two against two. He doesn’t remember when was the last time he felt so alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed by now, but I don't know shit about basketball, so I'm sorry about my poor attempt of writing a match. I hope I didn't upset anyone.  
> As always, thank you so much for reading! Please, let me know what you thought about the chapter if you read this far. Everyone's opinion matters a lot to me.


	4. At Ease

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryouta finds out it's possible to feel a little bit pretty when he's with the right people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIVE! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update. A lot of stuff happened, my laptop died and I found myself a beta reader! Unfortunately, she is too busy right now and I decided to update asap. Later I'll probably edit the chapter and give you guys the final version, but if you don't mind reading my poorly revised version... Here you go! Have fun! So far, we had a chapter from Kise's point of view. The next one had Aomine on focus. The next one went back to Kise. And the next... it's Kise again? This fanfiction has no organization whatsoever. It's just whatever the hell the author wants to write! Well... Yeah, pretty much, I'm sorry. Still, I am here hoping that someone out there find this amusing to read.

Back in the days, it was hard for Ryouta to find someone who could actually play against him, but, whenever he managed to find such an amazing talent, he would play with everything he got. Once the game was over, he would be so tired that there was a feeling of numbness on every single muscle of his body, but it was such a satisfying fatigue…! It was a feeling that he didn’t get for a long time. So much that he almost forgot how it was like.

But now he is getting that intensity it again.

The unique sensation of pleasurable tiredness on every muscle of his body like he never felt before because, really, he never played against such an amazing duo as Kagami and Kuroko. Midorima and Takao sure were a hard match, nevertheless they weren’t as strong as this strange pair he just met. Ryouta had the feeling that he could never beat Kagami and Kuroko if it weren’t for… Well.

Aomine is rolling his eyes while Momoi laughs because Kuroko has sassed him for what it seems like the tenth time since they arrived at Aomine’s apartment. The four of them are just talking about small stuff, sitting comfortably around a coffee table on the living room. The atmosphere is comfortable and almost soothing, just the four of them relaxing together as old friends – which Ryouta is not, but he does feel like it – while Kagami cooks dinner for them.

Aomine and Ryouta won against Kagami and Kuroko – and it wasn’t an easy task, because not only the both of them were amazing players, but their team play was flawless. Aomine and Kise kept misreading each other’s signals and trying to bring the spotlights to themselves instead of trusting each other. Nevertheless, by the end of the game, one had started to understand better how the other played. As for talented guys like them, to compensate the wasted time was a piece of cake.

In the end, they did win, but for a ridiculously small difference.

Ryouta had the impression that Kuroko and Kagami would never lose if they were used to Ryouta’s style like they were to Aomine’s. And that was bothering him. A lot.

Although, not now especially. Now he is enjoying the delightful feeling of mission accomplished while hanging out with people that feel like friends. He learned that Kagami is way gentler than his looks – and eyebrows – suggest. That Momoi is probably the most adorable creature in the whole world and it seems to be a gift of hers to make everyone feel as cheerful as she does – that, or she is really compatible with Ryouta. The only person who made him feel like that so far was Takao. – And  Kuroko is also… interesting. He is funny in a deadpan way. The four of them feel like some weird, dorky family…

And Ryouta doesn’t feel like an intruder. Not even once. This is a first.

“Hey, Tetsu-kun…” Momoi calls “Shouldn’t you be helping Kagamin with the dinner? Since you lost.”

“Hm…” Kuroko looks over his shoulder towards the kitchen, as if considering. A delicious smell comes from the open door. “No need. Taiga-kun got this. Besides I never agreed to any bet.”

“And I” Kagami mumbles as he brings a big tray with food for everyone. “would have liked a little warning before agreeing, you know? That your model friend wasn’t just a model”

“Well… I never said that he was useless, did I?” Aomine grins.

“Neither that he was a fucking professional.”

Ryouta smiles to himself, pleased. More than his looks, he loves it when people recognize his athletic skills.

“I’m sorry, Kagamin.” Momoi smiles apologetically. “I should have warned you.”

“You?” Ryouta raises an eyebrow at the girl.

“Yes. I thought they were aware that they were playing against Kaijou’s Ryouta Kise.”

“You’re from Kaijou?” Aomine and Kagami blurt out at the same time as Ryouta frowns in surprise and asks: “How do you know…”

“About your high school?” Momoi’s grin widens. “I used to be Touou’s basketball team’s manager at that time. I studied your whole team and I still remember a few promising faces, such as your own. It is a pity that we never got to play against you officially.”

 “So you also like basketball?”

“Very much, actually! I got impressed by your copying skills, by the way. I never thought I would see someone who could recreate Tetsu-kun’s style.”

Ryouta feels that sense of accomplishment and pride again. He’s starting to like Momoi even more than he thought.

As the dinner keeps going, Ryouta learns more about them: he finds out that, despite of Aomine’s insistence that he utterly hates Kagami, they have been roommates since they went to college together. Aomine is a photographer, but that's just a temporary job since he’s trying to be a cop. He’s saving some money before applying to police academy. Kagami is a firefighter and Kuroko is a kindergarten teacher and they’ve been dating since college. Momoi and Aomine have been friends since their childhood and, as Ryouta notices, she represents to him something like Kasamatsu is to Ryouta.

He realizes he never asked Aomine if he has a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Not that this is none of his business, of course, is just out of curiosity. He truly wants to _be friends_ with them. All of them. Since Aomine and Momoi don’t seem to have a problem with Kuroko and Kagami’s relationship, they probably won’t think it’s strange that Ryouta also has a boyfriend. So it doesn’t matter if they’re single or not, right?

Wrong. Terribly wrong.

Ryouta can feel the crush he’s developing  on Aomine not-so-quietly lurking in his chest and it’s literally crushing him inside. He wants Aomine to be gay, and he wants Aomine to be gay _for him_ and that is absolutely ridiculous.

And Aomine _did_ blush a little back then when Ryouta flirted with him, didn’t he? And he kept Ryouta’s number. And imagined how it would be calling him. Ryouta isn’t that idiot, he does know when someone is interested in him.

They had finished the dinner a while ago when Momoi’s phone rings and she leaves the room to pick up. Only then Ryouta notices that Kasamatsu didn’t call him even once. And neither did Takao to tell him – or else, complain about – what happened to Midorima. He tries to browse his pockets when he realizes he doesn’t have any. He’s wearing a T-shirt and his basketball shorts. His hoodie, that is also shamelessly pocketless, is hanging on Aomine and Kagami’s hall. He left his phone at home.

Kasamatsu is _so_ going to kill him.

 “Damn it…” Momoi mutters as she comes back. “Kagamin, is it okay if I stay over? My boyfriend can’t pick me up and I don’t want to take the train alone.”

 _So Aomine is definitely not Momoi’s boyfriend,_ says the tiny Takao inside his head.

Ryouta doesn’t know if he should be more worried with his ridiculous old crush coming back to haunt him or the fact that he actually has a tiny Takao talking to him in his mind.

“Sure.” Kagami replies and turns to Kuroko. “What about you? Are you staying over as well?”

“Yeah.” Kuroko gets up “I’ll do the dishes, since I didn’t help with the dinner”

And he proceeds to give a small kiss on Kagami’s cheek, which surprises Ryouta. He didn’t actually see Kagami and Kuroko as a couple until that very moment, for some reason. Kagami blushes violently and mumbles something about setting up a futon for Momoi as an excuse to leave the room. Ryouta realizes that this is his cue.

“So… I think I’ll get going now.”

“It was a pleasure, Kise-kun.” Kuroko indulges him with the tiniest of the smiles “Let’s play together again.”

“Sure.” Ryouta smiles back.

“It was so nice to meet you, Ki-chan!” Momoi beams. _Ki-chan?_ “I hope to see you again soon! Hey, Dai-chan, walk him to the station!”

“Shut it.” Aomine mumbles and only then Ryouta notices that he’s at the entrance putting on his jacket “I’m already doing that anyway.”

“What? You don’t have to bother, Aominecchi!”

“It’s okay, I was the one who asked you to come, anyway.”

 _It’s not like you don’t want some time alone with him,_ the tiny Takao scores again and Ryouta suppresses a curse.

“Well, if you insist…” Ryouta goes pick his hoodie and turns around to say good bye. “I see you guys around. Say thank you for the meal to Kagamicchi!”

Momoi enthusiastically waves them off and Kuroko is still smiling a little.

They’re real people. They are different from Ryouta’s usual acquaintances. They’re no models and they’re not putting any efforts to look perfect or to please strangers. All the four of them are just being themselves and that’s enough. No wonder Aomine was able to notice Kise’s fake smile on a heartbeat, if he’s used to live with such a genuine type of people.

Ah… Aomine is probably one of those that Shougo told him about. One of those people that it would be easy to seduce, with his looks and fake personality, but would get rid of him like a bag of trash once he learned more about the real Ryouta. And he doesn’t want this. He can’t explain why. Maybe it’s just his old obsession talking, but he doesn’t want to let go of Aomine. He wants Aomine to like him as well. He wants to talk to Momoi more often, he wants to play against Kagami and Kuroko again.

“Kise? What now?”

He blinks, realizing that he’s been paralyzed on the sidewalk while Aomine was locking the door. His plastic smile is there before he can think about it.

“Sorry. I spaced out.”

“Are you bipolar or something? You were perfectly fine just a minute ago and now you’re doing your thing again.”

“My thing?”

Oh, _right_.

Aomine _is not_ someone he can seduce easily. He almost forgot that Aomine can actually see what lies behind his mask easier than the others. This is _so_ not going to work.

“That thing when you force a smile. I thought you were doing it back then just because we were at that torture… I mean, party.”

“Huh… I guess not. I was doing because that’s what I do.”

What a train wreck. Ryouta got his hopes up when he got that phone call, but wasn’t it just a coincidence to begin with? Aomine asked him to come, of course, but only because he was probably hoping that his first impression on Ryouta was mistaken. Maybe he wanted just to make sure that such a handsome guy wasn’t the waste of beauty that Ryouta was. And now Ryouta fucked everything up by giving him the answer: he was nothing but a fake doll. Maybe he should leave before Aomine could find out how broken Ryouta actually was behind all of that acting.

“Anyway, how come I never played against you? I played against Kaijou and you were never there. And don’t tell me you were on the bench, because I can’t believe that after I saw you playing today.”

Ryouta’s heart flutters a little. Why the hell is Aomine always hitting him on his weak spots? It would be so much easier to just walk away if he hadn’t started talking about the one and only subject that Ryouta was unable to avoid: basketball. Everything Ryouta ever wanted for years when he was younger was to be recognized as a good player for the man in front of him. Why now?

“Well…” he starts walking, hoping that he’s not flustered or something stupid like that. “On my first year, we did play against Touou, but I think you weren’t there? We lost, anyway. On my second year, we didn’t play against you guys, I think you guys lost…?”

“Oh… right.” Aomine frowns. “I think that was the year when we got eliminated by Tetsu. What about your third year?”

“We played against Touou twice, but I couldn’t play in any of them. I hurt myself playing against… against a guy.”

Shougo. That was when he played against Shougo on one the most brutal basketball matches ever. Ryouta won, of course, but not without pushing himself so hard that he was unable to play for the rest of the Winter Cup. After that, things started going downhill.

All of his past relationships had lasted almost nothing and he was lonely and upset when Shougo showed interest on him. Shougo was the only one that could stand Ryouta for that long.

_Man, was he doing a good job on making himself sad._

“That sucks. But at least it wasn’t anything permanent, was it? One of Kagami’s teammates back then in high school was seriously injured on a match once, no chance of recovery.”

“You guys have known each other for quite a while now, right?”

“Yeah… Satsuki was my neighbor since we were kids, Tetsu were in our middle school and… Wait. You said that you went to Teikou and watched our games, right? And you recognized me, how come you didn’t recognize Tetsu as well?”

Crap.

_I was lying, Aominecchi. I only watched a single damn game, I only properly remember Midorima, because I met him again and we became friends. I also remembered you, but that’s because I had an unhealthy obsession with playing against you and I thought about you for three years ahaha… that’s not weird at all! Ahahaha! Wait, what you mean you’re getting me a restraining order?_

“Huh… Was Kurokocchi on the team? He must have changed a lot, I don’t really… remember him.”

Fortunately, as cute as Aomine is, he doesn’t seem to be very smart. He doesn’t notice Ryouta sudden nervousness or that he stuttered. He just lets out a little hoarse laughter and Ryouta thinks he’s going to die. _Crap, was he always this attractive? Is it because I’m now 100% sure that I can’t have him?_

“Well, now that I think about it, I shouldn’t be surprised. Tetsu never stood out too much. But he didn’t change, like, at all. He’s just a little hard to notice.”

“Yeah, I kind of understood that when we were playing earlier.” Ryouta smirks “How the hell does he do that? On a second we’re there and then he just appears out of nowhere and steals the ball? He must have been one hell of an opponent on an official match.”

“You bet. But you were a quite challenge yourself and we were on the same team.”

Aomine raises an eyebrow and Ryouta blushes for real. He accidentally showed a side of him that he usually tries to not let the people he cares about see: the competitive one, the one that doesn’t accept being underestimated even though is always looking down on everyone else. They’re almost reaching the train station and he avoids looking at Aomine as he replies, hoping that they get there soon enough.

“Hm… Sorry about that, but you… pissed me off a little.”

“You don’t like it when people think little of you, pretty boy?”

“You could say that.”

“My bad, my bad. But you really surprised me. You don’t seem like the type, you know?”

“What type?”

“The type that plays seriously. I thought you were the type that would be too scared to harm your precious face to actually… you know… _play_. Say be good at it.”

“Well, _excuse me_?” Ryouta is so offended that he actually stops walking and glares at him.

“What?” Aomine stops as well, hands stuffed on his pockets. “You did complain a lot when I pinched your cheek.”

“God, you’re so annoying!” Ryouta exclaims, without thinking.

 He’s not supposed to do that. Ryouta Kise isn’t supposed to complain or show any unpleasant reaction to begin with. He had conditioned himself to be the delight in the form of a person: never really criticize, smile a lot, laugh even when it’s not funny, be handsome when he needs to, smile his way out of bad situations, be adorable, be charming, be anything else the person he’s aiming for want him to be… He’s never supposed to be himself, because the real him is undesirable and abhorrent.

But, _God,_ does Aomine annoy the hell outta him!

Ryouta can’t keep the act up around him. It’s hard to lie to him and, above everything else is so irritating to have such a cocky guy saying him that he can easily tell which smile is fake and which one is legit. Ryouta finds himself feeling the most bizarre need to laugh – because, in the oddest way, he is somewhat happy – and also to slap the back of Aomine’s head. Nevertheless, instead, he confesses:

“I had two alone conversations with you and I wanted to punch you, like, five times already.”

“Anyway you have a genuine grin on your face while you say that. Also you gave me your number by the end of one of this conversations, so punching me isn’t the only thing you want, is it?” And he indulges Ryouta with a crooked smile that makes his heart skip a beat.

Ryouta can almost feel the tiny Takao inside his head screaming as a new tension involves them. Aomine is now standing in front of him, confident smirk in the face, what makes Ryouta’s face heat up way too much.

He knows he’s blushing like a school girl, but he simply can’t help it. Aomine is… well, he is Aomine. Ryouta had classified him as average when they first talked, and now he wonders what was wrong with him. Aomine is simply too _handsome_ and Ryouta wants to kiss that stupid cocky smile away as soon as possible, even though he is very aware that he shouldn’t. He tries to tell himself that this is wrong and he must put an end to it. Now.

“Smooth.” Ryouta finally replies, when he’s sure that his voice won’t shake. “But still haven’t decided if I want to punch more than another thing.”

“Ouch” He lets out that throaty little chuckle again and Ryouta thinks that’s cheating. “Are you always this harsh?”

Aomine takes a step closer to him and now they’re face to face. Their height difference is almost insignificant and they’re close enough for Ryouta to see the microscopic spot next to Aomine’s ear that he forgot to shave. That’s definitely too close for his mental sanity. He _can’t_ give in.

“I’m worse, actually.” _In a lot of ways that I am not comfortable with._

“I believe that. Today when you stole that ball from me, I feared for my dear life. And now I’m bitter because I didn’t get to play against you when we had actual teams. You’d be a hell of a challenge”

And, simply as that, Ryouta resolution crashes down. He cups Aomine’s face between both of his hands and smashes their lips together.

It’s not the best kiss. Aomine isn’t waiting for it, his mouth is shut closed and his eyes widen in shock because he probably never thought that Ryouta would do such a stupid thing so out of the blue.

It is amazing, nonetheless. Ryouta feels it until the tip of his toes: Aomine’s mouth is soft and he can feel the faint scent of shampoo coming from his spiky short hair. It feels natural, as if it’s not the first time, as if their lips are meant to kiss each other. Ryouta leaves out a small sigh as he slowly pulls back, making up for his sudden unnecessarily intense peck.

Aomine is staring at him with an amazed expression.

“Oh.” He says “I get it now. Complimenting your basketball playing does the trick.”

“I shouldn’t have done that.” Ryouta mutters and starts walking again.

“What? No, wait! Why?”

“It was wrong.”

“Huh? How can you be so sure? Come here and do it again so we’ll see.”

Ryouta laughs. He remembers the time when Kasamatsu told him that laughter was a sign of hysteria. Maybe Ryouta is getting hysterical. He sure can’t explain the tornado of emotions inside his chest right now, this might as well be hysteria.

“Kise?” For the first time, Aomine sounds unsure, like a tiny piece of his enormous confidence is actually shaken.  It should be, after all he’s having to powerwalk to follow Ryouta’s pace.

“I’m… confused, Aominecchi. Sorry.”

“Confused. Okay. So many things in common so far!” There is a short pause. “Does your confusion have something to do with my kissing skills? Because you didn’t actually give me the opportunity to kiss you back, which is a shame since we did it in public and people are already staring, so we should have given them the whole show and stuff.”

Ryouta laughs again. He is _definitely_ going hysterical. He better get rid of Aomine before he throws an unintentional fit in the middle of the street.

As if they heard Ryouta’s silent pray, the gods granted his wish: the train station was finally in front of them. He stops walking – hopefully for the last time – and turns to Aomine, wondering if he can fix the mess he made before he leaves.

“It has nothing to do with your kissing skills. I just… have some stuff to think about. Now thank you for walking me here. I can find my way home by myself from now on.”

Aomine frowns, probably wondering if he’s being dumped. Ryouta wants him to think he is so the situation will be solved by itself. He also wants Aomine to chase after him, even though this kind of stuff is unthinkable at this early stage of their relationship – also an unhealthy thing to wish for, probably, considering Ryouta’s previous romantic issues.

“Fine.” Aomine finally says and Ryouta’s heart breaks a little. “But…” And the hope is there again. “before you leave, am I allowed to show you my actual kissing skills?”

Ryouta prays that he isn’t grinning like a stupid girl getting invited to the prom by the school jock. If there’s a God out there, He wouldn’t allow such a thing.

“Go ahead.”

And he goes. Ryouta already knew that Daiki Aomine is the kind of man that goes big or goes home, so he isn’t actually surprised when he shamelessly throws an arm around Ryouta’s waist and pulls him closer than it should be allowed outside. His kiss, although, is a surprise: he starts with a small peck on Ryouta’s lips, then pressing their mouths together for what it feels like years. When Ryouta leaves out a soft sigh, Aomine slips his tongue through Ryouta’s lips, and the model find himself griping onto Aomine’s shirt. It’s slow and intense and if feels like _burning._

Ryouta isn’t an unexperienced kisser, but he still finds himself a little breathless when they pull apart.

“We shouldn’t do this in public.” He wheezes, slowly – reluctantly – letting go of Aomine’s shirt.

“It’s night already.” Aomine shrugs.

“It’s 7p.m.”

“Whatever. Are you sure you can find your way home? You look a little feverish.” He teases and Ryouta sighs.

“See you around, Aominecchi.”

Aomine smirks at him one last time, before stuffing his hands on his coat’s pockets and turning around to go back. Ryouta stares at him for five more seconds before rushing to the station.

For the rest of the way home, Ryouta becomes a mess inside because of the same frenzy that almost killed him when he was with Aomine. He suddenly realizes that it was abnormally easy to forget how much he hated himself when Aomine is with him.

Although, isn’t that dangerous? What if he forgot how wrecked he actually was and started to be… well… _too_ himself? Wouldn’t it ruin everything he had been building for all these long years? Ryouta can’t tell it properly, because whenever he thinks about it, he remembers the way that Aomine and Momoi and Kagami and Kuroko were fascinated by his basketball, even though he showed part of his ugly side on the court – and then he has to physically restrain himself from giggling.

Fortunately enough, he manages to get home safely, somehow, and, given the fact that he forgot his phone, he is not surprised when his gentle “I’m home” is replied with a pillow being violently thrown on his face.

“ _Where have you been? I was almost calling the police!_ ” Kasamatsu barks.

Groaning, Ryouta picks up the pillow, that by chance is the pillow he’s been using when he’s sleeping on the couch where his agent was angrily waiting for him.

“I was out with friends, senpai, no need to…”

“There is a lot of need! Which friends? I called Midorima and Takao and they haven’t even heard of you!” Kasamatsu gets up and starts to walk fiercely in circles “You just go out like this without your phone and without telling me where you’re going and come home centuries later…”

“I was out for, like, five hours!”

That is the wrong thing to say. Ryouta sees anger building up inside Kasamatsu and he braces himself for the impact, but, unusually, it doesn’t come. He opens his eyes and sees that Kasamatsu is going back to the couch from where he was watching TV before. No throwing stuff. No kicking, no punching. As much as Ryouta knows that Kasamatsu doesn’t actually enjoy hurting him, it’s not Kasamatsu-like to hold himself back like that.

“Senpai…?” He tries, approaching the other man slowly.

“Whatever. I… I suppose I have to tell even though I don’t want to.”

“What is it?”

“Haizaki called. Twice.”

 _And there it is._ Ryouta is abruptly brought back to Earth and his stomach flicks.

Today was fun and unusual. He enjoyed himself and laughed and loved almost every second of it, but that was it. Days like today are the exception, not the rule. Ryouta isn’t supposed to hang out with people like Momoi and Kuroko and Kagami and especially Aomine. Times of fun like that are limited because he’s rotten and has that horrible personality that he can’t help but let it show from times to times. Ryouta is only supposed to hide his problematic behavior, look pretty and try his best not to bother anyone, especially those he cares about, otherwise they’ll leave.

The only one that can endure Ryouta the way he is – and he’s tired of hearing that – is Shougo, after all. That’s the only constant on his life. Don’t matter how screwed up he is inside, Haizaki will always come after him and try and win him back again.

Ryouta was unhappy, but at least he wasn’t alone.

“Kise.” Kasamatsu frowns. “You don’t have to call him back, you know? You can stay here for as long as you need. You don’t have to go back to that asshole.”

Except that he has. There is no other path for Ryouta to follow, unless he is okay with being by himself.

Ryouta thinks of the amount of fun he had while playing basketball. Momoi’s complimenting his impressive performance on the court was one of his week highlights. She even called him Kaijou’s Ryouta Kise. Not Kise the model, not Kise the perfect cheerful prince. Kise, the basketball player that once was his team ace on high school and it was very talented, so his out of court behavior didn’t matter. The way Kagami complained about how Ryouta could be considered a professional while Kuroko silently nodded touched him as well. Even Aomine – that unachievable Aomine that he admired for years – recognized him – and even freaking kissed him, for God’s sake.

If only he could extend that delightful times for a while…

_If I go back to Shougo now, he won’t allow me to keep hanging out with Aominecchi._

“I’ll shower and get some sleep, senpai.” He announces and, deliberately ignoring his cellphone that was lying on the coffee table, turns around.

“You…” Kasamatsu blinks, surprised. “So you’re not going to… You’re not calling Haizaki back?”

Ryouta fakes a smile – because that’s his specialty after all – and beams at Kasamatsu:

“I don’t have anything to say to Shougo-kun right now, so no.”

It feels like he’s defying gravity, breaking all the rules and assuming a risk he’s not able to take. Anyway, he doesn’t come back. He doesn’t feel like returning Shougo’s calls, so he won’t.

And that’s how Ryouta starts to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does anyone even bother to read my hysterical notes? Anyhow, they kissed!  
> They K-I-S-S-E-D.  
> I'm glad they got so far in so little time. My boys. Growing up so fast!  
> Again, I'm sorry for breaking the switch-of-POV pattern, it's just that Kise needs way more development than Aomine does.  
> Gosh, I talk too much. Thank you for your attention, as always, please let me know what you thought about the chapter!


	5. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Daiki struggles with his friends' antics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who's alive! It's been a while and I'm sorry. Anyway, I hope there is still someone - anyone! - following this story.  
> Another Aomine's chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it!  
> 

Daiki has the worst friends ever. There is no discussion, no disagreement about this statement. It's a fact. Satsuki, Kagami and Tetsu might keep telling him that he is just as bad – or even worse – than any of them, but that isn't true at all. Obviously Daiki is an absurdly cool guy that is trapped with a bunch of little shits as companions.

It wasn't enough that Kagami and Tetsu simply paired up with the sole purpose of ruining his life – and at that, Daiki was an absolute angel by putting up with all the shitty stuff that comes with having two of your closest friends dating each other and he even enduring without complaining that much about all of the times he ended up walking in on Tetsu and Kagami making out on the couch – and it wasn't enough that Satsuki was totally on their side - instead of, you know, sticking with him, the man that she knew for her whole life and that was like a brother to her.

No. They also had to lure him into the homosexual life-style with the help of a stupidly perfect model.

Daiki still doesn't know what the hell was that, but he isn't the one to be blamed. The ones at fault are obviously Kagami and Tetsu – that made him catch the gay, of course – and Satsuki – who set a trap on his phone and made him accidentally call Kise and seal the deal with the devil – and Kise. Especially Kise.

He was so mad at that stupid blond! How dared him? How could he not be gross and uninteresting like the rest of the male population? No, he had to be pretty and cute and hot and to have those stupid sad puppy eyes that made Daiki's heart flutter with the urge to comfort him. And as if everything wasn't bad enough, the guy had to be freaking awesome at basketball.

_He is good at basketball, for fucks sake! B-a-s-k-e-t-b-a-l-l!_

Daiki was just rolling with it, not sure of what he would do next, even though he should have known at the very moment that Kise stole that ball from him: his soul was already sold and there was no going back. He was still in denial until Kise kissed him and he loved it and he just accepted his fate, because he truly wished he could just eat that boy alive right away.

He went back home, still a little unwilling to believe that a guy that wasn't him could be that good at kissing and hoping from the bottom of his heart that Kagami and Tetsu would be already in Kagami's bedroom and Satsuki asleep when he got home.

Of course they weren’t. All the three of them were on the living room, Satsuki not seeming to mind the fact that she was sitting between a stupid couple, waiting for him. They only wanted to make fun of him because of his new stupid and perfect romantic interest and, when Aomine just groaned and hurled himself on the floor, face down, Kagami and Satsuki seemed to figure out by themselves what actually happened and lost it. They just started wooing and being a pain in general. A lot of questions were made and even fucking Tetsu laughed at him.

You have a whole life of unbelievable achievements, the best athletic skills on the whole world and you are a perfect delight to be around, but do your friends notice? Of course not! Then you feel the sudden urge to bang another guy and just like that you are not only super interesting and long-conversation-worthy, but you also are a goddamn target for the stupidest jokes.

It’s been days since he last saw Kise and the blond is still a hot topic on the Aomine-Kagami household.

Satsuki and Tetsu keep staying over every night and they could as well have moved in, except that instead of bringing their stuff, they are packing things up to leave. Kagami and Tetsu’s new flat will be ready to receive the newlyweds within weeks –it doesn’t matter what they say, boyfriends that decided to live together are married and Daiki can’t accept it – and they’re slowly getting everything ready. Daiki doesn’t know why they don’t just go. Satsuki says that they are doing things gradually because they’re worried about leaving Daiki alone. He changes the subject whenever she brings it up, because it’s easier to say that your friends are the worst when they’re not being – unnecessarily – considerate about your feelings.

“Hey, Dai-chan.” Satsuki calls on the sixth night after what Daiki calls the _Kise incident_ “Are you still staying here when Kagamin leave?”

It’s movie night, which means that Kagami isn’t on call. Since no one is going to call him to put out any fires or to save kittens on trees or anything like that, Tetsu comes over and they are curled up on the couch watching old, sappy movies, even though that means that Tetsu will be tired and sleepy on his morning class. That’s a habit of them that Daiki isn’t going to miss. At all.

“Of course not.” Daiki replies absently, because he is paying more attention to his phone right now. “Too big for me alone. Can’t afford the rent.”

“You could just look for a new roommate, you know? Or do you have another place in mind?”

Satsuki is sitting on the corner of his bed and she sounded so worried that Daiki sighed and put down his phone for a second to remind her that he was actually an independent grown-up man who needed no Tetsu – and definitely no Kagami – to keep his life going.

“Police Academy, Satsuki. I have to live on the dorms for at least one year, remember?”

“Oh.” There is a brief pause, enough for Daiki to turn his attention back to his phone. “It’s so weird that this is finally happening. I mean, I always knew that you could do it, but to think you actually went through college, got yourself a temporary job to save money and now is finally ready for the academy…”

“Hm.”

“You grew up so much, Dai-chan! It’s so weird to see that you’re an actual adult now, I’m so proud! Also… Dai-chan, are you listening to me?”

“Hm-hm.”

“Dai-chan, I’m asking Tetsu-kun and Kagamin for a threesome.”

Daiki smiles at the screen of the phone and types a quick reply, but doesn’t press send yet. He doesn’t want to seem too eager.

_[from: aomine-kun’s beloved future husband, 9:27 p.m.]_

_senpai's being mean for no reason. I’m so tired! need some beauty sleep! how am I supposed to look good when he keeps making me work when I want to rest?_ (´Д｀)

_[to: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:29 p.m.]_

_then why arent you sleeping_

_[from: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:29 p.m.]_

_please. it isn’t even midnight yet, I can’t sleep this early. the morning is the best time to sleep._

_[to: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:30 p.m.]_

_just go to sleep, you weirdo_

_you’ll fall asleep on the middle of the shoot again and your precious senpai will beat you up_

_[from: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:30 p.m.]_

_aominecchi is also mean!_ ( ≧Д≦) _fine! i’ll sleep now! you’re no fun!_

 

Daiki actually chuckles lightly at that. What’s with that selfish and childish behavior? And why is it so cute?

 

_[to: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:31 p.m.]_

_good night pretty boy. catch ya later._

 

He only has to wait for a minute before the reply comes. As expected, Kise sends him a selfie where he is lying on a couch instead of a bed, for some reason, but he is obviously ready to sleep and he does look tired, even though that doesn’t mean he looks any less beautiful. On the photo, he’s pouting like a child – oh, does Daiki want to kiss those stupid lips again – and Daiki can’t help but laugh lightly at the stupid good night text that follows the photo:

 

_[From: tetsu is2g sTOP changing his name on my damn phone, 9:33 p.m.]_

_only doing as you said cuz i’m so tired, so very tired. it won’t always be this easy. good night, aominecchi._

 

“Oh. My. God. This is _so_ cute!”

With a shameful yelp, Daiki almost hurls his phone to the sky and beyond. Satsuki was probably getting some _How to be a Little Shit_ lessons from Tetsu, because Daiki didn’t even notice when she got up from her spot and sat down next to him to fucking read his – private, thank you very much – conversation.

“What the hell, Satsuki?” He barks.

“You guys are texting each other!” She beams, and buries her face on her hands as if she can’t even contain her happiness “I thought you’d scare Ki-chan off, but you are texting each other just like a couple of teenagers!”

“Yeah, because only teenagers own phones!” He sticks his phone inside his pocket so she doesn’t find out that, yes, he and Kise having been texting each other _a lot_ during the last week.

“So you really like him, don’t you?”

Daiki doesn’t actually like talking about his feelings, but he learned through the years that, once Satsuki wants him to talk about anything, he will do it anyway. Sometimes he struggles a little bit, so she won’t think she’s on charge of everything – she is – and get too smug about it. Nevertheless, whether he talks or not, she always figures out what he’s actually thinking. Sometimes Daiki just tells her the truth partially, because if she puts too much thought into it, she might realize things that Daiki wants to keep to himself.

He swears to God that girl isn’t human. She has to be some kind of mind reader demon.

“Not that much! I mean, I like him, but it’s not that big of a deal!"

“Give me his number, I want to text him too!”

“Hell no! You’re the one who’s gonna scare him away!”

“Mean!” Satsuki pouts. “And not true! Ki-chan liked me as much as I liked him, I’m sure about it. When are you guys going to meet?”

“No idea.” Daiki sighs, unsatisfied. “He’s always busy. I had no idea being an idol was so much work. He’s always on a shoot or being interviewed or rehearsing for something.”

“Hm… What do you guys talk about when you’re texting?”

“Basketball, mostly.” He tries his best to sound nonchalant about it, but the truth is that he’s really, _really_ pleased with it. Despites of his looks, Kise is as passionate about the sport as any of his old teammates. _And_ Kise is really too damn hot, which can be only counted as a plus.

“Oh, God!” Satsuki chuckles “Remember when you broke up with that Sakura girl and you were complaining so much that Kagamin asked what kind of girl would be perfect for you and you said that an idol like person who liked basketball as much as you do? You found the one, Dai-chan! Never let him go!”

“Shut up, will ya?”

“But it _is_ so cute!” She laughs a little more. “And you’re surprisingly chill about all of this. I thought you would struggle a little more with accepting that you have a crush on another man.”

“Oh, well…” Daiki rubs the back of his own head. “I don’t like complicated stuff, so I won’t complicate my own life. I like him, I don’t care that much about his gender.”

“You grew up so much, Dai-chan! I’m so proud of you!”

“What are you? My mom?”

“Then Tetsu-kun is your dad? He had the talk properly with you?” The smug grin on her face is beyond annoying. “Do you know now how the adult life works?”

“That was a _joke_ and I don’t understand why I’ve been punished for it!”

A few days earlier, when he walked Kise to the subway and got back home only to found his friends waiting to mess with him, it happened. After what seemed like several hours of torture and teasing, Kagami expressed his concern about Daiki not knowing how the intimacy of a homosexual couple went. Kuroko replied that Daiki sure knew how to put on a condom and have sex. Daiki then asked “What do you mean condom? Gay sex can’t get people pregnant, can it?” which was _obviously_ a goddamn joke.

The three of them glared at him, each one wearing the same deadpan expression and ignored Daiki insistence that he knew perfectly how the male body works and thus, _he was kidding._

On the very next day, he found himself locked in his own apartment with Tetsu, a cucumber and a box of chocolate flavored condoms. Being the obnoxious dickhead that he was, Tetsu made it as awkward as possible, giving hints of his own sex life that Daiki never wanted to know – and it was somewhat helpful, because Daiki didn’t know anything about preparations – and Daiki begged for mercy – he didn’t get any – and tried to run away, but it was even scarier having Tetsu following him around holding a cucumber and a condom, so he sat down and listened until the end of it. When Daiki asked why a cucumber, Tetsu said like it was the obvious answer:

“Because if I used a banana, you could start actually thinking about Kise-kun and I want to avoid an awkward situation” which doesn’t make any sense, but Daiki doesn’t want to think about it too hard, because if there was a way of that situation get any more awkward, he doesn’t want to know how.

By the time he finished, Tetsu went to Kagami’s bedroom presumably to put the chocolate condoms away. Gross.

He swore that he would have his revenge someday.

He also thought that he should do some research online on the things he didn’t fully understand, because apparently gay sex was more complex than he thought.

Daiki’s phone buzzes and Satsuki sits up so fast she almost head-butts Daiki. Luckily enough, his reflexes are too fast for this.

“Who is it? Is it Ki-chan? What does he say?”

“Who’s the teenager now?” Daiki holds his phone out of her reach. He hadn’t let Satsuki touch his phone for a while now. Mostly because Kise had snapchatted him some selfies and he shamelessly had saved each one of them. “Of course it's not him, is my boss about next week’s photo-shoot! Calm down, woman!”

Satsuki pouts.

“You know, when you said you’d got yourself a photographer job to save money I thought it would be more fun.  But you’re never invited to the cool parties because you’re a newbie and you never have interesting stories about celebrities, you just keep checking on everybody’s boobs. Next time I see Ki-chan, I’ll get his number. I bet he’ll take me to interesting parties.”

“Jokes on you.” Daiki absently retorts while tapping an answer for his boss. “Kise hates half of the parties he’s invited to. On the other day, he spent a whole party talking to me.”

“Oh, did he?” A smirk spreads on her face and Daiki groans. “Tell me more, Dai-chan, what did Ki-chan tell you about the party?”

“Stop calling him Ki-chan!”

“Oh, no need to get jealous, Dai-chan, I already have a boyfriend of mine, I won’t lay my hands on yours~”

“Get out. Go home.”

Satsuki laughs and dodges the pillow that Daiki threw on her face.

 

* * *

 

More often than not – which directly translates to “whenever he’s not eating the excellent meals that Kagami cooks” – he wishes that Kagami had already moved out. When he leaves his room at 6 a.m., Satsuki's still asleep on the guest futon, and finds Kagami and Tetsu soundly asleep on the couch, their limbs tangled, it’s one of these times.  He could have scared them awake, but he decides that the pleasure of seeing them fall of the couch isn’t worth the revenge that Tetsu could have on him later, so instead he just goes to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

Daiki shouldn’t be up at this ungodly hour. He can’t remember the last time when he woke up without needing Kagami to drag him out of the bed, he really can’t, but somehow he isn’t in a bad mood. He feels well rested and ready for anything, even for putting up with Kagami and Tetsu’s cheesy habits.

He fixes himself a cup of coffee without bothering anyone, what can be only another sign that he is so in peace with himself that he might as well be almost reaching the nirvana. Not even the demonic birds are chirping annoyingly today. He doesn’t expect anything to interrupt his blissful – and weird – moment of inner calm, but of course something does. He barely went back to his room, walking past a unconscious Satsuki that isn’t even half as cute when she is laying down with limbs spread in weird angles and drooling on the pillow, when he props himself on his bed and his phone buzzes. He frowns, but his expression changes as soon as he sees it’s a text from Kise.

 

_[From: Kise 6:43 a.m.]_

_I might have or might have not fled from my rabid agent and he might kill me so please tell me you are awake right now bc I’m near your apartment_ (●o≧д≦)o

 

_[To: Kise 6:45 a.m.]_

_it’s six in the morning and I have no idea of how this things are related_

_[From: Kise 6:46 a.m.]_

_oh thank god you’re awake_

_I’ll explain later  just come and meet me already I know you don’t have work until afternoon_ ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶

 

_[To: Kise: 6:47 a.m.]_

_who said I want to meet you_

 

Daiki may or may not be already up and browsing his wardrobe for clean clothes and wondering how fast he can take a shower before going out. Kise answers almost instantaneously and Daiki chuckles lightly at the reply:

 

_[From: Kise: 6:47]_

_MEAN! Aominecchi is so mean!_ ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<)･ﾟﾟ･｡ _I only wanted you to bring a basketball so I can play and skip work!_

 

If Daiki weren’t already walking towards the bathroom, he would go on the very instant that Kise used the B word.

 

_[To: Kise: 6:48 a.m.]_

_just where are you loser_

 

And if he’s willing to go out at six in the morning just to see the guy, he knows he’s too far gone to go back. And the worst about all of this? He doesn’t even mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, let me know your opinion if you read this far, it is really important to me!  
> From this point, the story will make a turn. Will Kuroko and Kagami use the chocolate condoms? Will Haizaki finally appear? Will Aomine finally get laid? Who knows!!


	6. Cheap Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Aomine and Kise play basketball. Just the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy AoKise day everyone! The one-shot I was working on didn't get ready on time, but here you go! Another chapter! Have fun!  
> P/S: Thank you, Blue, for your proofreading!

First of all, Ryouta Kise is not a slacker. Most people would take him for a carefree guy, who’s a little bit of an airhead, but that’s not who he really is. He actually puts effort on everything he does – less effort than everybody else, it’s true, but hey! It’s not his fault that he’s a genius than can do anything once he decides to – and he always took his responsibilities very seriously: he never skipped practice back then on his basketball days unless it was absolutely necessary. He wasn’t the best student because he couldn’t give two shits about his grades, but he never failed any classes. He is punctual when it comes to his photo-shoots and interviews.

But when Kasamatsu wants to drag him to a meeting at 7 a.m., Ryouta backs off and runs away.

It’s not like they _need_ Ryouta there. That is the kind of boring meeting in which Kasamatsu can figure everything by himself and Ryouta just sits there, looking pretty – which is a big achievement, since it’s just seven in the morning – and smiling at people he doesn’t care about.

He is a pretty diligent guy when it comes to his work, he really is. But it’s been a very tiresome week: not only he had to shoot two commercials in a very short interval, he also had to attend several interviews about his single that is coming out next month and to rehearse his new songs several times and there was _choreography_ involved. As if this wasn’t too much already, Shougo has been calling him at least twice a day and Ryouta can almost feel the anger building up inside the other man while his calls are ignored. He can only feel at ease when he runs to Takao and Midorima’s apartment at late night, much to Midorima’s annoyance and Takao’s delight, or… when he’s talking to Aomine. They texted each other almost every time they had a break from work on the last week and, even though Aomine’s texts are almost always dry and sarcastic, Ryouta enjoys talking to him.

So, in the middle of this whole mess, when Ryouta finds out that the meeting is being held in a hotel next to Aomine’s place, he immediately flees and texts him. It’s a dim hope: he knows that Aomine isn’t working, but it’s not even 7 a.m. yet. He’s probably still asleep.

Against all the odds, Aomine replies almost immediately and agrees to meet Kise.

The fact that Ryouta couldn’t win a single time against Aomine is just contrary to all the logic rules of this world. Ryouta had  _never ever_ lost so bad and he is getting really pissed about it, so when Aomine just hurls the ball away and flops himself on the ground, Ryouta pouts.

“What are you doing?” He demands.

“Taking a break.” Aomine’s eyes are closed and he doesn’t even bother opening them to look at Ryouta “You’re so much work. Did you really wake up at six in the morning? Jesus.”

Still frowning, Ryouta gives in and sits beside him. He is tired, of course. His limbs are burning and he can almost hear his leg’s muscles sighing in relief when he rests on the floor, both him and Aomine protected of the sunlight by the trees of the park where the court is. The same court where they played together against Kagami and Kuroko not long ago.

“I’ll definitely beat you, you’ll see.” Ryouta remarks and that jerk has the audacity of laughing. For the first time, Aomine’s hoarse chuckle makes Ryouta want to punch him in the face instead of making his heart flutter.

“No, you won’t.” Aomine looks so damn smug…! Ryouta’s pout intensifies. “The only one who can beat me is me.”

“I’m just out of practice!” Ryouta insists. “I haven’t played for years! I’ll sure as hell hand your ass to you… once we finish this unnecessary break.”

“Now, now, don’t be a sore loser. I arrived here and we just started playing. Care to explain why you’re here? Won’t your precious senpai kill you for skipping work?”

“He already wants to kill me.” Ryouta hugs his legs against his chest and rests his chin on his knees. “He’s really mad because I made a mess on the kitchen yesterday and he’s dragging me around to his boring meetings as a punishment. It's not really necessary for me to go there.”

“So that’s it…” Aomine hums thoughtfully and cracks an eye open “I’ve been wondering about this for a while since I noticed you sleep on a couch… But are you living with your agent?”

Ryouta pulls a face. He probably should have refrained from sending pictures of him on his temporary bed to Aomine since the last thing he wanted was to discuss his current situation with him. He sure wasn’t thinking too much about it when he did. It’s just that he feels so comfortable when he’s talking to Aomine…! He forgets important boundaries way too easy.

“Yeah, kind of.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” He fidgets, deliberately avoiding Aomine’s gaze. Maybe if he gives him a vague reply… “You live with Kagamicchi, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but Kagami is just a firefighter and I’m a photographer. We can’t really afford a decent house of our own by ourselves.”

“I’m not that rich.” Ryouta lies bluntly and Aomine actually sits up, frowning.

“Okay. The nationally famous and popular Ryouta Kise can’t afford a place of his own or a bed. Let me tell you something, buddy, your agency is taking advantage on you.”

He pulls a face again, avoiding Aomine’s intense stare. He should have thought this through, though. He really should have. He knows that Aomine hates it when he lies, he learned that after the several times that he got scolded for faking smiles, and he was already aware that Aomine would want an explanation about his sudden childish need to run away. The fact that he didn’t have a proper answer was just his luck and he wishes they were still playing instead of talking about him. He has no problem with communicating with Aomine through their basketball, but about himself? Oh no. He would rather die before admitting right now to Aomine that he’s too stressed to work because his (ex?) boyfriend keeps calling him and he doesn’t know if he should call back.

“Fine! I have my own apartment, but… it’s currently unavailable.” He could have lied about it, said that it was being reformed or something like that, but not only he suspected that Aomine would see right through him, he _didn’t want_ to lie.

“Currently unavailable.” Aomine repeats slowly. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You have to achieve at least level 50 of affinity before unlocking my tragic backstory.”

Aomine groans and he can’t help but smirk a little. Ryouta knows that he won’t push the subject now that he was given a straight “I won’t say it” for an answer. The fact that he knows Aomine this well – or at least trusts him this much – is a little concerning, but he doesn’t mind for now.

“You’re unbelievable.” Aomine complains. “How long are going to play the mysterious type?”

“Come on, Aominecchi! You can’t expect me to spill all of my secrets on the first date.”

At first, Aomine just scowls at him, but then he realizes what Ryouta just said and his frown slowly becomes a rather self-satisfied smirk. Ryouta braces himself for the teasing.

“This is a date?”

“No, it’s not! It was just a way of speaking, I… huh…”

“It’s a date! You called me on a date to play basketball on an old, lame park court!” Aomine scoffs and laughs loudly. “The idol Ryouta Kise is such a cheap-date! Wait until I tell this to your fangirls!”

“Shut up!” Ryouta tries to act upset, but, seriously, Aomine is such a _dork_ he can’t help but smile a little. “This is not a date!”

“Oh? Then what is it?”

“It’s…” He doesn’t have a comeback. Crap. “It’s a… huh… A friendly meeting between two mature adults to play basketball that may or may not end up with a little making out. Just a little.”

“So... like a cheap date.”

Ryouta groans. Aomine is impossible and it only took him three meetings and several texts to realize that. Actually, Aomine is nothing but a huge dork… And Ryouta loves it. As unpredictable as he is, Aomine can make Ryouta experience all sort of emotions he missed from his school days: the excitement of a challenging match of basketball, the easy and lazy happiness of being around friends, nothing to pretend or hide and, most of all, the hope that this time things are finally going to be okay.

It’s a dangerous way to patch, and yet Ryouta doesn’t want to let go of it.

“So…” Aomine raises a thin eyebrow. “About that last part of your cheap date. The making out part.”

“Yes?” Ryouta purrs and he isn’t putting much effort into thinking right now. He just smugly grins at Aomine and watches with satisfaction as he sees the cobalt blue eyes staring intensely at his lips. He realizes without further explanation that Aomine isn’t replying verbally once he closes his eyes and covers Ryouta’s mouth with his own.

It’s easy, effortless. Ryouta loves it that Aomine simply ignores the fact that they are in a public park in the middle of the morning. His heart races as Aomine tenderly cups his face with one hand and caresses his cheek by making circles with his thumb. He loses his breath as he lets his mouth be explored and wraps his arms around Aomine’s waist. It doesn’t matter that they’re both tired and sweaty from the exercise, it doesn’t matter that the sun is burning their skins, neither does the fact that they’re acting like a couple of irresponsible teenagers in love.

A lot of troublesome things don’t seem to matter when he is with Aomine.

“Hmm…” Aomine stops – which is good, because Ryouta is almost climbing onto his lap and he’s not sure if he would be able to stop himself from doing so – and he starts: “You know…”

Before Aomine can actually say anything, although, a loud noise startles both of them, making the two pull apart definitely.

Distracted by Aomine – and damn, is that asshole a distraction – Ryouta didn’t even noticed that his phone was buzzing until it loudly started to ring. He hesitates before fishing it from his pocket, tempted to ignore it as he sees Kasamatsu’s name on the screen. He’s already in trouble, anyway, so it’s okay if he keeps being irresponsible, isn’t it? Kasamatsu will kill him anyway, so there is no point.

Aomine raises an eyebrow at his not much less than terrified face. He eyes Kasamatsu’s angry face at the screen of his phone, feels suddenly guilty and decides to answer the call.

“Yes-”

“ _WHERE ARE YOU, YOU ABSOLUTE PIECE OF SHIT_?”

Frowning, he pulls the phone away from his ear. Aomine’s eyes widen in surprise for a moment but then he smiles amusedly as he mouths “Is that your beloved senpai?” Ryouta scowls instead of answering and waits until Kasamatsu stops screaming. Aomine can be seen snorting and trying not to laugh out loud on the background and Ryouta has no idea what’s so funny about his situation. Does Aomine know that Ryouta is definitely going to get murdered?

“I’m guessing the meeting is over?” Ryouta tries after a while, when he thinks it’s remotely safe to speak. It is not.

“ _I’m guessing the meeting is over!”_ Kasamatsu parrots in a squeaky mocking tone. “ _Your life should be over, you fucking brat! I can’t believe you vanished like a fucking kid skipping classes! I’m picking you up right now, where are you?”_

“No need to pick me up, I’ll go home by myself.” Ryouta groans “Also there is no need for you to be this mad, it’s not like you really needed me there…” There is a brief pause, which Ryouta finds strange. It’s not Kasamatsu-like to stop in the middle of a rant like that or to let Ryouta speak when he’s mad. “Kasamatsu-senpai?”

_“Kise… You aren’t with Haizaki, are you?”_

Ryouta blinks. Why would Kasamatsu even think something like that?

Then he realizes that this is how it used to happen: he would fight with Shougo, Shougo would go after him and he would go back to Shougo. That was the pattern he used to follow… but Aomine broke that pattern.

“I… I am not.” He is surprised by his own realization, so he doesn’t convincing even though he is telling the truth.

“ _Sure_ …” Ryouta can hear the frown of suspiciousness on Kasamatsu’s voice. “ _Then go home right now so I can beat your sorry ass when I get there. Also Takao called me, he wants to talk to you as soon as possible.”_

“Then why didn’t he call me?”

_“Because lately somebody wasn’t picking his phone. I fucking called you three times already, haven’t you noticed?”_

“…Oh.” He hadn’t. He was too busy playing against Aomine. Kasamatsu sighs.

_“Also, what are you going to do on Friday?”_

 “On Fri… Oh!” It’s not a subject that they need to discuss right now, it can wait until Ryouta gets home. Kasamatsu is only trying to extend their conversation, trying to figure out if Ryouta is lying or telling the truth about being with Shougo. Ryouta can try to convince him that he is telling the truth, but Aomine is staring at him and listening to every word he says, so he decides that he should just resume the conversation. “Don’t worry, I’ll just spend the night at some hotel.”

_“Kise…”_

“It’s fine, senpai, let’s talk when I get home, ok? Ok! Bye!”

Kasamatsu is about to say something, but Ryouta hangs up before that. He probably managed to make him even madder, but he can deal with Kasamatsu’s rage later.

“So… you really live with your senpai.” Aomine observes.

“Yeah, but it’s just temporary.” Ryouta frowns.

“While your apartment is unavailable.”

“Yeah.”

Aomine waits. Ryouta doesn’t give any further explanation. He sighs.

“What were you saying about a hotel? Did he kick you out or…?”

“What? No! Senpai wouldn’t kick me out like that!” He would definitely _kick_ Ryouta, but he wouldn’t leave him homeless. “It’s just that his girlfriend’s birthday is on Friday and he’s been planning on doing something special for her and she is staying over. It wouldn’t be as romantic if I was there, so… Yeah. Gotta find somewhere else to spend the night.” Ryouta shrugs.

He probably will end up on Midorima and Takao’s couch, it’s not that big of a deal. Aomine hums thoughtfully.

“You could crash in my place, if you wanted.”

“Your place.” Ryouta repeats, raising an eyebrow.

Only then Aomine seems to realize the implications of his offer and his face becomes a shade darker. Ryouta has to physically restrain himself from smiling in amusement to watch as Aomine struggle with words:

“Not in a… I mean… No. Wait. I mean, Kagami will be there!” Ryouta actually smiles and Aomine curses. “Not like _that_ , ok?”

“Like that…?” Ryouta purrs. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say, Aominecchi~”

“Fuck, Kise!” He punches Ryouta in the shoulder and it does hurt a little, but he is too busy snorting with laughter at Aomine’s awkwardness. “You know what? Never mind! Go to a hotel and waste your money. You’re uninvited.”

“No! Don’t be mean, Aominecchi! Also, didn’t you say that Kagami was moving out?”

“He is, but only on Sunday.” Aomine pouts.

“Will Momocchi be there? I miss her.”

“Then go crash in her place.”

“Aw c’mon, Aominecchi!” He chuckles lightly and drops his chin on Aomine’s shoulder. “Sorry! I know you have no ulterior motives for inviting me to sleep on your house and there is no way you would think of something naughty under Kagamicchi’s watch.”

“I hate you.”

“Can I still crash in?” He waves his eyelashes and indulges Aomine with his most charming smile.

“Ugh…! Whatever, I don’t care. Don’t you have to go home get scolded by your senpai-slash-dad?”

“Yeah, it seems so.” Ryouta sighs. “I guess I see you on Friday, Aominecchi.”

Aomine grunts something in response and he’s so adorable when he’s being an obnoxious pouty child…! Ryouta kisses him on the cheek before getting up.

“Go to work, Aominecchi!”

“Piss off, Kise!”

Ryouta snorts and makes his way to the metro station. He isn’t exactly wearing sunglasses or anything to keep him from being recognized, so he is stopped by fans several times. He doesn’t mind, though. He’s on a ridiculously good mood and any excuse to delay his meeting with Kasamatsu is welcome. He takes photographs and sign papers and shirts and some girls don’t even seem to mind that he’s all sweaty from the exercise.

When he finally gets to his destiny, he decides that, since he’s in trouble anyway, he might as well delay it a little more.

Years ago, when Midorima and Takao were looking for a nice, not-so-expensive place to live together, Ryouta helped them with their search and, of course, asked for Kasamatsu’s help as well. As expected of his reliable senpai, Kasamatsu found the place they wanted a floor above his own apartment, which was pretty convenient for Ryouta. Having three of his best friends living on the same building was very practical: since Takao called him earlier, Ryouta decides to go pay him a visit and ask him what he wanted personally.

As he takes the elevator, he wonders what Takao could want. Probably complain about Midorima? He doesn’t think too hard about it. Ryouta is still at ease as he knocks on their door and waits.

It takes a whole minute for someone to open up. Ryouta is about to knock one more time or just assume that there’s nobody home and leave when Takao appears looking much more annoyed than usual.

“Oh, there you are, finally!” He bitterly exclaims instead of actually welcoming Ryouta.

“Hey… I guess. What’s going on?”

“What’s going on, he asks me!” Takao huffs loudly. “What _happened_ , Kise, was that your stupid boyfriend punched mine!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, no, they punched Midorimacchi! I'm sorry about this cliffhanger (just a little)  
> Will you guys tell me what you thought about the chapter? Pretty please? I promise I'll update faster if you guys give me feedback! *shamelessly bribing people for comments*


	7. Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryouta makes a decision and Daiki wants some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! Finally! I'm really sorry for taking this long. As always, college is taking away my soul and I'm very thankful for your kind comments.

_Your boyfriend punched mine_ , Takao had said.

The words echo loudly on his brain. They make no sense. Ryouta has to repeat them at least three times on his mind in order to figure out some meaning behind them. The first person that comes to Ryouta’s mind is Aomine. It shouldn’t be like that. He has only known Aomine – the real Aomine, at least – for a few weeks. The thing is: Takao says “boyfriend” and Ryouta’s brain happily replies with “Aominecchi!”

“That’s impossible! I’ve been with him the whole morning, he didn’t have time to punch Midorimacchi!”

“You’ve spent the whole morning _with Haizaki_?” Takao hisses.

“What? No! Wait, who are you talking about?”

There is a brief moment of silence.

“Who are _you_ talking about?”

 _Oh, right_ , Ryouta remembers, _Haizaki is his boyfriend… somewhat._

“Huh… Never mind, where’s Midorimacchi? You’re saying Shougo punched him?”

“Well…” Takao sighs “Come in.”

Ryouta starts to feel sick. Everything that had made him feel a better in the morning suddenly feels impossibly far away, like another life, because he’s starting to understand what Takao was so mad about: Midorima has been punched. Someone deliberately threw a fist on Midorima’s face to hurt him. And that someone was Shougo. The Shougo that Ryouta’s been dating for years.

He kicks his shoes off and hurries to Midorima and Takao’s living room. It’s a small apartment, but it seems to be roomier than it actually is, since they chose to decorate with the traditional Japanese style. Midorima is sitting on the floor and his left cheek is red and swollen. It’ll probably look worse later. There is a small cut on his lower lip.

“Oh my God!” Ryouta wails.

Midorima is the most annoying person he has ever met. He’s piece of work and cocky and eccentric, a real tool most of time. Everyone that they met wanted to punch Midorima at least once in their lives. And he is Ryouta’s _friend_. As much as Midorima is _an obnoxious weirdo_ , he’s the sweetest when you manage to get through his uncountable layers of complications. He’s caring and motherly and he’s observant when you least expect him to be, yet need the most. Besides, above everything else, Midorima is not dangerous. He would never hurt a fly – he’s all talk and no action – and, since Takao is always there to tell people that Midorima means no harm, the thought of someone trying to hurt Midorima was absurd.

Ryouta feels like his stomach is filled with liquid steel.

“You _told him_?” Midorima glares resentfully at Takao.

“What? Yes, we have to tell him!”

“I told you it’s none of his business!” Midorima hisses.

“Ah, for fucks sake, Midorima, I'm not hiding it because you don't want Kise to know that you care about him.” Takao groans and turns his stare to Ryouta “Kise, your boyfriend was dicking around and hitting on some girls near Midorima’s work. This dumbass had to middle, of course, and he called Haizaki on it because _he thought that Haizaki wasn’t aware that hitting on girls when you have a boyfriend is wrong_ , so Haizaki punched him and he blacked out. And woke up alone in the hospital calling me to pick him up.”

Midorima pouts like a little kid. On a normal day, Ryouta would chuckle and hug him – which would make Midorima _so_ offended – and would thank Midorima for going that far for his sake – and Midorima would deny that he cared about Ryouta, that he did what he’d done because of his sense of righteousness. Ryouta would just laugh it off.

Nonetheless, this isn’t funny.

“Oh, my God, Midorimacchi…” Ryouta sits by his side and reaches to Midorima’s chin. Midorima flinches, as if waiting for the hug that doesn’t come.

And then the worse: Ryouta’s eyes sting and he thinks he’s about to cry. He hasn’t cried in front of any of his friends for years. The last time he genuinely cried in front of someone was during his graduation when he realized he was finishing high school without achieving his goal – and Kasamatsu, that was there as Ryouta’s guest, saw it and comforted him. That was it. He hasn’t cried in front of his friends a single time that after that.

Now, though, he’s about to burst in tears despite of Midorima’s and Takao’s presence because he feels _so_ miserable…!

Shougo was never one to think of the others. Ryouta knows it better than anybody else: Shougo says what comes to his mind, never caring about the consequences or how they affect the others, and he doesn’t like it when someone opposes him. That’s why Ryouta and Shougo are such a perfect match: it doesn’t matter how much Shougo bashes him, Ryouta agrees with everything he says, so he doesn’t fight back. He ignores it. In exchange, Shougo gives him company and a few moments of pleasure, that became rarer and rarer as time passed by.

“Kise…?” Takao calls quietly.

He and Midorima suddenly seem to notice the tears unshed on Ryouta’s eyes.

Midorima panics.

“What’s with you now? Why are… _What_ … You… _Just_ …!! _T-Takao_!” There is a desperate _do something about this!_ implied by the end of the sentence.

“Now, now…” Takao sighs and sits down. He hates dealing with this kind of thing and Ryouta knows it. “Sorry about telling you about this, Ryou-chan, I thought you knew that he… you know… hits on people sometimes and… Weren’t you aware that that asshole isn’t… faithful, I mean…”

“That’s not it.” Ryouta’s voice cracks and he feels even more humiliated. Since there’s nothing much of dignity left to him anyway, he rubs his eyes, trying to wipe the tears away. “I don’t care at _all_ , we never held each other back anyway... That’s one of his only good points”

To be honest, Ryouta thinks Shougo would be pretty furious if he knew about Ryouta’s little hook up sessions with his model friends. But Ryouta always knew that Shougo wasn’t faithful and never said a word about it. He didn’t bother to complain about it, because he got so mad that he just wanted to pay back. He carelessly partied whenever Kasamatsu allowed him to do so, and he _played_ with quite a few women and men, even though he was famous enough for the rumors to spread. Nevertheless, Kasamatsu kept him on line. He never got involved with a big scandal and Shougo wasn’t enough interested in gossip magazine’s to hear about Ryouta’s little adventures.

Secretly, Ryouta always wanted him to find out. Not only he wanted to use the opportunity to bring Shougo’s affairs to light, he wanted Shougo to get jealous, to show that Ryouta was somebody important and that he treasured. He loved his freedom and didn’t like being held back, but he wanted to know that somebody _cared_ about him.

What an impossible, stupid thing to wish for.

He didn’t even like Shougo. Not anymore. And he sees it pretty clearly now: he liked – needed – the idea of someone desiring him despite of his ugly, so ugly, personality.

And look at where that took him. His friend was hurt and it was all because of him and his stupid selfishness, his despicable self.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Midorimacchi…” He whimpers quietly.

Midorima stares at Takao in a pretty obvious request of help. Takao sighs again and clears his throat.

“It’s not your fault, Ryou-chan.” He conveys softly, and the usage of the dumb nickname comforts Ryouta a little. “God knows it was just a matter of time before someone punched Shin-chan. We’re not mad at you, for real. But… Well, we do want you to break up with that asshole.”

“I will.”

“I mean, we know you’ve been together for…” Takao blinks and trails off. “Wait, what?”

“I said I will break up with Shougo.”

“That’s it? No _It’s complicated, Takacchi!_ Nor _There is more to consider than you guys think!_ Or any of the crap you usually pull?”

“No…” Ryouta pouts, hoping that he doesn’t sound as whiny as Takao made it sound like. “I… I’ve had it enough. I’m going there tomorrow, I’m picking up my stuff and I’ll find myself a new place to live…B-by myself.” He stutters and shivers.

It’s scary. He’s terrified by the idea of being by himself. He has never lived alone: when he was a child, he was used to live in a full house, with his parents and his older sisters. Once he graduated, he lived on a dorm with lots of college colleagues before he finally moved in with Shougo. He was scared of waking up by himself and having no one around if he felt like chatting or cuddling.

_Well… Shougo was never a talkative person, anyway._

He thought about the fact that Midorima got punched in the face for his sake. Maybe he wouldn’t be so alone, after all. Ryouta takes a deep breath, reminds himself of the main reason why he’s doing that and he voices it out loud just to make sure he won’t forget:

“Besides, I don’t care about anything else, I just can’t forgive someone who hurts my friends.”

Midorima gasps – Ryouta knows him well enough to suppose that he’s the one about to cry now – and Takao’s chin drops.

“That’s it?” Takao asks again. “We’ve been trying to make you kiss Haizaki good-bye for centuries and all we had to do was make him punch Shin-chan? Gosh, we should have made them have an alone conversation before!”

“ _Takao_!”

“Wait up, Shin-chan, I’m calling Kasamatsu-san to tell him, he’s going to be so… so…”

Takao stops right before reaching for his phone. Ryouta is carefully checking Midorima’s chin again and, if Takao didn’t have stopped in the middle of the sentence, he wouldn’t have noticed the sudden pause. When he looks at Takao, though, the man is blinking slowly as if something had snapped inside of his brain and he’s adjusting to it.

“Takao?” Midorima frowns, looking somewhat worried.

“Ryou-chan. When I told you Haizaki punched Shin-chan, who’d you thought I was talking about?”

_Crap._

“No one. I mean… Midorimacchi. I mean… Shougo. I mean… What?”

“I said that _your boyfriend punched mine_ and you said that it was impossible because you were with him… But you weren’t with Haizaki, so who were you with?”

_Crap, crap, crap-_

“ _Nobody_!”

“I can’t believe you already got yourself a new boyfriend!” Takao beams and Ryouta knows he’s screwed. Midorima is about to go on his worst Mom Mode and is going to lecture him and interrogate him and tell him how irresponsible he is. He braces himself at the same time that he desperately tries to figure some kind of plan to flee, but, when he glances to Midorima, he’s not furious-red and is certainly not looking at him. He’s a little flushed, yes, but instead of Ryouta, he’s staring at Takao.

“Did you just say I am your boyfriend?”

_Oooh shit._

Takao’s face becomes two shades redder and, for the first time as Ryouta can recall, he seems to not know how to respond. Ryouta gets up faster than it should be humanly possible.

“Oh, look at the time!” He exclaims louder than he usually would “Did you guys hear that? Definitely Kasamatsu-senpai calling me home. Thank you for the chat, see you guys later!”

As he dashes to the exit, he can feel Takao’s terrified look on his back, silently begging for help. Ryouta doesn’t know how to fix the situation – and Takao got himself into that mess, anyway – so he just leaves as fast as he can, mentally apologizing to Takao and praying for his success. He wants to pry into their love life, of course, but, before anything else, he has to sort his whole life somehow.

* * *

 

A lot of troublesome things happen on Daiki’s life on that week, between the fatidic Monday when he had his first (cheap) date with Kise and the promised Friday when Kise is coming to a slumber party.

To begin with, Daiki quits his job. It is about time. He never liked this stupid temporary work that he only accepted because he was hopeful he would meet Mai-chan. Not only he never met a super famous idol – aside from Kise – but the only models he came to know were super annoying and futile and useless – again, Kise may or may not be the only exception. If he thought about it, the money and Kise were the only good things he got from working as a photographer for those long, so long, months.

He still has about a month to go before police academy starts, so he has a ridiculous amount of free time, much to Satsuki’s concern.

The first troublesome thing happens on his very first day of vacation: Satsuki calls him screeching out loud and telling him to _immediately_ check the link she just sent to his e-mail. He was just about to go to sleep, but she threatens him with the worst punishment he’s ever experienced if he even think about trying to hang up. He is not afraid of Satsuki, but she can be a real pain when she wants to. Groaning in frustration, he decides to do as she says.

When he turns on his laptop, phone still on ear, he finds out that the link leads to a celebrity gossip website. He frowns. Satsuki knows he has quit his job and doesn’t have any interest in this kind of stuff, so… _Oh._

It’s Kise. A blurred, but still nice, picture of Kise smiling at a man who Daiki has no problem with recognizing: it’s himself. The both of them are walking out of the small court where they played yesterday. Daiki’s face isn’t exactly visible. He quickly scrolls down, but the first one is the only picture. Aomine sighs in relief. Kise would probably be in trouble if the media found out that he was hooking up with another man on a public space. The whole article was plain stupid and useless, just a small note reminding people that even the popular Ryouta Kise did stuff like going to public courts to play basketball with friends.

“What the hell…” He mumbles to himself, forgetting that Satsuki was still listening.

“You’re kind of famous now, Dai-chan!” She chuckles lightly. “Never thought there would be a day when you’d be on the other side of the camera!”

“This is so useless. Who cares if he goes out to play? You got me scared for a second, Satsuki”

“Well, Ki-chan’s fans care and… Wait, what were you scared about? Oh my God, Dai-chan, you guys weren’t just playing basketball there, were you?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“I can’t believe you!” She snickers. “That’s really irresponsible of both of you, Dai-chan, I’m glad you guys didn’t get actually caught.”

“Satsuki, do me a favor and shut up, yes?”

“But Ki-chan is used to this kind of thing. He should be more careful with where he decides to do stuff like this.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“WAIT! You haven’t told me you met Ki-chan. How was it? I want some details! Are you guys officially dating yet?”

“Like hell I’m telling you.”

“You’re my best friend! You’re supposed to tell me about your relationship! Come on, Dai-chaaannnnnn-”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not a-”

“…nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-”

“Satsuki, what the hell, don’t you have anything better to do or…”

“…nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-”

“FINE! God, you are so annoying!”

He ignores her stupid little giggle and decides to let her have this small victory just because he wants to get rid of her and get some rest already. He doesn’t tell her unnecessary details, like how he was willing to go out at that ungodly hour just to meet that stupid model or how his heart did all kind of things when they kissed, but he does tell her about Kise’s annoying habit of hiding stuff and his impossible to understand innuendos. Daiki doesn’t want to admit, but he really needs Satsuki’s help to figure out their current situation.

“Hm…” She hums thoughtfully after he’s done. “I don’t know what Ki-chan is up to, but I’d say give it a time, Dai-chan. It’s my intuition talking now, but I’d guess Ki-chan’s been through a lot. He seems kind of lonely, doesn’t he?”

“He’s used to hide his thoughts behind a plastic smile.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. Anyway, I think you guys make a nice couple, so be patient. I bet Ki-chan will tell everything on his own time.”

Daiki is still annoyed by it, but he has more important stuff to worry about aside from Kise. Like his precious nap. Kagami is out to work, so he has the whole house for himself – and he decides to sleep wearing only his underwear on the couch, because why the hell not. Kagami is moving out within a week, Daiki doesn’t have to worry too much about the rules that the other man spent years trying to stablish even though he had problems following them himself.

Almost as if telling Daiki that he shouldn’t be able to forget about him that easily, he wakes up to a text from Kise.

 

[From: Ryouta Soon-to-be-Aomine 05:44p.m.]

have you seen that we’re on the internet? I’m really sorry Aominecchi. <( _  _ )>

 

[To: Kise 05:45p.m.]

it’s not that big of a deal don’t sweat it

 

He waits, but there is no further conversation. Daiki shrugs it off and decides to take a shower, a little upset that Kagami isn’t home yet. Half of the fun of sleeping almost naked is to have Kagami pissed off about it.

 

Two days later, Daiki finds out that working out only once a day isn’t enough to burn up his energy. He is now bored and annoyed that his free time is bigger than his need for sleep, something that never happened before.

It’s just after lunch when the second trouble comes: he’s watching a game on the TV. A loud thump noise followed by Kagami cursing and calling him. Even though he didn’t want to – and he was _not_ worried, not at all – he went to see what it was only to find out that the loser really needed his help and Daiki had to drive him to the closest hospital. He couldn’t help but wonder how a person can be that stupid and God knows what would have happened if Daiki weren’t home.

He’s trying not to die of boredom in the waiting room when his phone vibrates. It should be probably Satsuki, complaining about her own work and trying to talk Daiki into doing something that she finds productive. He blinks in surprise when it’s not Satsuki’s name that he sees on the screen.

 

[From: Aomine-kun’s soulmate 02:43p.m.]

I’m so tired... some days are just the worst

 

Daiki frowns. It’s not unusual for Kise to whine about useless crap, but the absence of flashy emojis alerts him that this is a serious matter. All of a sudden, Daiki feels as concerned about Kise as he felt when he heard Kagami’s groans of pain.

 

[To: Tetsu why do you keep doing this 02:44p.m.]

what happened pretty boy?

 

He waits. For a few minutes, nothing happens. Daiki keeps impatiently checking his phone almost every five seconds, but there is no reply. Usually Kise is the one who replies right away and the fact that it’s taking him more than five minutes to reply annoys the hell out of Daiki. God damn it, if he’s not available to talk, why the hell did he start a conversation – say a worrisome one! – to begin with? Daiki is about to send him another message when the unsatisfying answer comes:

 

[From: Tetsu why do you keep doing this 02:59p.m.]

told you. I’m tired. what are you doing?

 

 _Un-fucking-believable._ Daiki wants to punch him, but he guesses there’s no other way. Kise is too pretty to be easy, so he has to be a ridiculous amount of work. Because it’s not enough that his roommate made him drive him to the god damn emergency, his… his whatever-the-hell-Kise-is has to be on a bad mood and, instead of telling him what is the matter, he has to just drop hints. Such a troublesome guy. Daiki decides it’s a good idea to make Kise taste his own medicine.

 

[To: Tetsu why do you keep doing this 03:01p.m.]

nothing. just chillin’ on the emergency waiting room.

 

[To: Tetsu why do you keep doing this 03:02p.m.]

WHAT

 

Aomine smirks, pleased with himself. His sadistic side doesn’t let him reply immediately, even though he doesn’t have anything better to do. He shouldn’t overestimate Kise’s patience, though, because not even five minutes have passed when the screen lights up with Kise’s number. With raised eyebrows, Daiki picks up.

“ _WHAT do you mean you’re on the emergency?”_

“Oh, hey. Glad to hear your voice, Kise. I’m not doing bad, you?”

“ _Aominecchi_.” Daiki wants to tease him some more, but he sounds genuinely upset. Daiki is not that cruel.

“Calm down already. I just drove Kagami here, but he’s not dying or anything.”

“ _Oh._ ” There is a clear sigh of relief and Daiki wonders what Kise thought had happened. He has the weird feeling that Kise had a very specific concern in mind when called Daiki. His voice tone is still worried, although in a different way, when he asks: “ _What happened to Kagamicchi? Did something happen on his work? Does Kurokocchi already know?”_

“Huh!” Daiki snickers “He wishes he got hurt doing something cool like saving puppies from a fire or something like that. He slipped on the shower and twisted his ankle.”

“ _Slipped on the shower.”_ Kise parrots slowly.

“No, listen to me. He comes home looking like crap, right? He announces that he’s going to hit the shower and I’m like okay, I’m watching basketball on TV, I don’t care. Then suddenly the loser starts screaming for help and I run over there, right? Then I see. The horror. Kagami sprawled on the floor, skin naked and moaning in pain. God, I never wanted to see that much of Kagami.”

“ _Oh my God!_ ” Kise laughs and Daiki feels a grin widening on his face as well, because Kise’s laughter is that contagious and he’s relieved that troubled tone vanished from his voice. They probably shouldn’t be laughing at Kagami when he’s somewhere with a broken leg or something, but… Well. What the hell.

“Kise, I’m not kidding. He didn’t even have the decency of pulling the towel to cover his Taiga Jr. I almost became heterosexual again. I’m traumatized!”

At that, Kise cracks up so hard he is a little breathless when he stutters an answer:

“ _I- I wouldn’t want that! Oh God, is he okay?”_

“Who cares?” Daiki groans. “I have no clue, anyway. He got mad because I was teasing him about his stupid accident, so he told me to wait here while he sees the doctor. He said I can’t tell Tetsu, but he didn’t say anything about telling you, so…”

_“Aominecchi, you’re so mean...!”_

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. I drove him here, after all.” There is a brief pause where Kise laughs a little bit more. Daiki just listens to it, enjoying the clear sound of amusement until the silence takes over. Even over the phone, he can feel when Kise gets unsettled again. Daiki takes a deep breath. “So. Are you telling me what were you whining about or are you going to play that stupid mysterious shit again?”

Kise groans and, for a second, Daiki thinks he’s going to be vague about it and talk it out. Much to his surprise, Kise takes a deep breath and starts quietly:

“ _Remember that my house was unavailable?”_

“Yeah…”

“ _Well… it’s not my house anymore. I’m officially living with my agent. I mean, until I find myself a new place”_

“What? Why?”

“ _A lot of… things… happened. I thought I should get my life together, so… Yeah. I spent a whole day getting my stuff back with my friend and it was more stressful than I thought and I’m relieved, but I’m exhausted and today... well, today things were just as tiring._ ”

“Well, doesn’t that make everything clear!”

“ _Aominecchi…_ ” Kise laughs at his sarcasm, but it’s somewhat bitter. “ _You know…We saw each other three days ago, so this may come out a little stupid, but… I miss you.”_

Daiki bites his lower lip. His natural response would be teasing. _Of course you missed me, I’m that awesome!_

However, he doesn’t feel like doing so. There is some kind of tension between the two of them even through the phone call. A tension that he feels that he shouldn't break. Daiki can’t explain it and he doesn’t even try. It just feels like the wrong time for provoking Kise. Instead, oddly enough, he feels an unexplainable need of hugging him. When he finally replies, his voice sounds more husky and sincere than he expected:

“I kinda miss you too… Stupid.”

Kise chuckles lightly once again, but it’s too bittersweet for Daiki’s liking.  There is a moment of hesitation one more time.

“ _Aominecchi, I…I still can sleep over, right? Tomorrow, I mean.”_

“Yeah.”

“ _Great. Then…_ ” Daiki can hear when Ryouta takes a deep breath “ _I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Why I’m homeless and all_.”

"What? For real?"

" _For real._ "

“I… Okay.”

_“Awesome. So… See you then, Aominecchi.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is finally getting to it's climax. On the next chapter, a very awaited character is finally making his cameo, Kise is going to fix some stuff and Aomine is going to suffer a little bit more. Please, keep enjoying AoKise's bumpy ride and don't forget to let me know what you're thinking about the story.


	8. Support

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryouta finally realizes that he's not really alone.

“Senpai…” Ryouta calls almost shyly from the door.

Kasamatsu is comfortably lying on his bed and tapping something on his laptop. It’s still kind of weird to see Kasamatsu wearing sweatpants and old T-shirts. The whole suit and tie thing he uses to work fits him much better than the comfy clothes he wears while at home. Probably because the formal clothing he wears to work reflect his uptight personality – but Ryouta doesn’t voice any of these thoughts, because he doesn’t wish for death. Instead, he patiently waits until Kasamatsu stops typing and raises his glance to Ryouta.

“Yes?” He cocks a thick eyebrow.

“I… I want to take the rest of the week off.”

“Huh?” Kasamatsu frowns. “What’s with that all of a sudden? You’re being weird since you came back from Takao’s.”

Ryouta fidgets and starts pulling his own sleeves, pretending that the little gesture is worth enough of attention so he doesn’t have to look at Kasamatsu.

“I just have some stuff to do… Things to fix. Yeah.”

He braces himself for the scolding, but he’s ready to whine the whole night if necessary to convince Kasamatsu to give him a little vacation. He doesn’t think he’d be able to do his work properly right now and he definitely could use a break. Ryouta does not want to talk about what happened – that Midorima was punched and it was his fault and his decision about Haizaki and how scared he is – but he’s willing to put up a fight and use the most absurd arguments in order to get the days off he wants, even if he has to deal with Kasamatsu yelling.

“Fine.”

Ryouta opens his eyes – he didn’t even notice he had closed them while expecting for Kasamatsu’s anger – and stares at the other man, confused. He can swear he heard Kasamatsu – _his Kasamatsu-senpai, the Yukio “Anger Issues” Kasamatsu_ – agreeing with his unreasonable sudden request.

“Sorry?”

“I said fine.” And Kasamatsu is already typing on his laptop again. “You didn’t have any important appointments for this week. I’ll just cancel or reschedule them.”

Ryouta’s chin drops.

“That’s it? You’re not going to yell at me? Not calling me irresponsible? Not scolding? Not beating me up? Who are you and what did you do to Kasamatsu-senpai?”

“Do you want me to actually beat you, asshole?” Kasamatsu scowls. “It’s no big deal. You may be a pain in the ass, but you’re pretty diligent with your work. If you’re asking to take some days off, you must have a good reason, so it’s okay. Just don’t make this a habit.”

“Senpai…” Ryouta mutters, feeling a lump inside his throat.

He suddenly is overwhelmed by everything: Midorima getting into a fight for his sake, Takao’s awkward attempt to comfort him when he noticed there were tears in his eyes and now Kasamatsu being comprehensive and kind without questioning. Those three know him and are still his precious friends. They care about him and don’t even mind that much the fact that Ryouta is a horrible person in general. He always knew that they liked him, but only now that he’s actually cutting his ties with Shougo and preparing himself for being alone that he realizes: he won’t be, in fact, alone. Not even for a moment.

That thought gives him enough strength to swallow down the lump and ask:

“Since… Since there’s no work, then can you drive me somewhere tomorrow?”

Kasamatsu looks at him again and now there’s a hint of curiosity in his dark eyes.

“I guess so. Where to?”

“To my… No… To Shougo’s apartment.”

* * *

 

Kasamatsu silently drives and, while Ryouta is glad for not being asked questions to which he doesn’t have answers, the quietness makes him a little uneasy. Kasamatsu made a vow years ago of no meddling between Shougo and Ryouta, in order to protect their friendship. Ryouta knows they would have fought a lot if Kasamatsu had actually voiced how much he was against Ryouta’s toxic relationship with Shougo. The whole Shougo thing became a taboo between them, so Ryouta more or less expects Kasamatsu’s silence.

However, he doesn’t feel any more comfortable about it.

The trip to Ryouta’s old apartment isn’t a short one and yet Ryouta feels they got there too fast. He chose to go at that hour because he knows that Shougo won’t be home. The last thing Ryouta wants is to meet Shougo, as coward as that is. He’s thankful that most people are working, so he doesn’t meet any neighbors on his way. The man finds himself holding his breath as he turns the key and opens the door, but fortunately the apartment is as empty as predicted.

As soon as he gets in, he realizes that the familiar apartment doesn’t feel like home. He lived there for a long time, but it doesn't feel real right now. He recognizes the furniture he chose _(and he bought all of it by himself, because Shougo refused to go with him since it would be a pain)_. He sees the arrangements that Midorima helped him with, so the whole place would be organized according to Feng Shui ( _something that Ryouta absolutely did not believe in. There was no way to arrange the furniture that would stop him and Shougo from making each other’s life a living hell. Nevertheless, it looked nice and gave him a good excuse to make Midorima help him with the move_ ). The ugly paintings he bought with the sole purpose of pissing Shougo off are still hanging on the walls ( _however, one of them seems to have been used as a dart target. Shougo must have had fun with it while Ryouta was away_ ). It’s not as messy as he expected it to be, so Shougo must have cleaned up a little. Everything looks almost the same as it did when he left. The whole place is familiar and foreign at the same time. Ryouta feels sick.

Kasamatsu stares at him with raised eyebrows. Behind the frown, Ryouta notices a concerned look, so he forces a smile and powerwalks towards the bedroom, where he left almost all of his clothes. Only when he opens the wardrobe he remembers that he has a lot of clothes. Ryouta groans when he realizes that this is going to be a slow, distressful task. He tries not to think about what he’s doing at the same time that he repeats soothing words like a mantra inside his head: everything is going to be okay. This is for the best. He’ll not be alone. He’ll be free and his freedom was something he always cherished.

Then why does it all sound so meaningless?

While he packs a large amount of expensive jeans and fancy shirts, he’s very aware that he doesn’t love Shougo. That Shougo is a _prick_ who hurt someone he cares about. He’s _repelled_ by the simple _idea of Shougo_ , then why is it so fucking hard to let go of him? He bites his lower lip so hard that it hurts until he feels a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Kise.” Kasamatsu voice is collected. “I take care of the clothes. Go get the rest of your stuff. Let’s make this quick.”

“I…” He hesitates for a second, but finally nods. “Please, don’t take any of _his_ clothes by accident.”

“Please.” Kasamatsu scoffs. “I have been your best friend since we were teenagers. I can recognize your clothes and definitely can sort them from Haizaki’s.”

Ryouta lets out a short laughter that sounds rather hysterical, but Kasamatsu’s words are actually very soothing. _I’m your best friend._ That’s right. Kasamatsu has always been by his side albeit his awful manners. Kasamatsu cares about him. When Ryouta browse the shelves for his games, he realizes that that’s what he wanted: he wanted to be loved by what he was without having his freedom taken away from him. That’s what he gets from his friends.

Why did he stick with Shougo for so long again?

It’s true that Ryouta doesn’t want to take anything but what he absolutely needs, like his clothes, his memories from high school and his basketball trophies, because he doesn’t really want any memories of Shougo. The thought of buying new stuff to a new place is also very appealing, something to compensate the idea of living alone. Ryouta always loved going shopping. He also takes his Nintendo DS, his PS4 and all of the games he bought – Shougo isn’t going to be happy about it, but Takao certainly is going to love it – and soon enough Kasamatsu’s car is full of Ryouta’s stuff. It seems to take ages, though, and every little noise that Ryouta hears makes his stomach flick with the thought of Shougo coming home earlier for any reason.

“I think that’s it.” He says after what felt like years of work. “I think we got everything.”

“Good. You sure you didn’t forget anything?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Ryouta feels like this is the time when he’s supposed to look around for the last time; however, he doesn’t feel like doing so. Instead, he takes the keys from his pocket and leaves them on the table. Shougo will find them there for sure. “Let’s go, senpai.”

Kasamatsu follows him without any question and neither of the two men seems to worry about the fact that they just left the door unlocked, since the keys stayed inside. Ryouta feels like he’s recovering from a fever: his whole body feels numb and exhausted, but there is some feeling inside him that everything is slowly getting better.

“You okay?” Kasamatsu asks as they enter the car.

Ryouta is about to say that he’s fine, but a little voice inside his head – a voice that sounds a lot like Aomine’s – complain about his terrible honesty habits. Kasamatsu went there with him and supported him. The least he can do is to tell him the truth.

“I’m not sure, senpai.”

“Oh.” Taken aback by the sincere reply, Kasamatsu doesn’t seem to know how to reply at first. “You’re going to be, though.”

“Yeah… probably yeah.”

And Ryouta smiles. It’s a tired, tiny little grin that could pass unnoticed by an unobservant person. It’s an honest smile, though.

* * *

 

When the e-mail comes, Ryouta almost deletes it. Shougo had called and texted him more times than he could count and he had rejected every call, but for some reason he didn’t put the phone away. There was an odd feeling of satisfaction in watching the number of unanswered calls increasing. The thought of Shougo getting home and finding the door unlocked and Ryouta’s things missing is very pleasing. Ryouta wants Shougo to slowly realize that he lost Ryouta for good and the more he deletes all of the texts without reading them, the more he’s sure that Shougo is getting desperate.

The new e-mail, though, it’s not from Shougo. It’s from a coworker. A model girl named Makoto that got in the agency by the same time that Ryouta did and now they are close enough for her to have his personal e-mail. She sent him a link to a gossip site and a short question followed by several emojis: “ _who's the hottie_?” 

Ryouta doesn’t really follow his fansites. He learned years ago that he’ll go crazy if he tries to follow the baseless rumors that people create about him. Anyway, there is a little game between him and some of his closest colleagues from the agency in which they send to each other the funniest or most curious rumors they find about themselves. Sometimes the gossip isn’t even funny, they are just trying to confirm if it’s true or not, which seems to be the case.

He isn’t concerned until he opens the link and sees a photograph of him leaving a basketball court… with Aomine by his side.

“ _Shit_.”

He frantically scrolls down the article, but thankfully it’s nothing that would make Kasamatsu want to kill him. It’s just a lot of gibberish about how the popular Ryouta Kise spends his time with unknown friends on regular places. He groans, because who the hell cares about that? Why is it important to anyone if he plays basketball with another guy sometimes? Fans can be weird.

Even though the article is nothing, he feels like he should apologize to Aomine. Maybe he’ll get mad that he got involved in a pointless article, who knows? It’s not probable, but he decides to do something anyway. Instead of replying to Makoto, he types a quick apologetic message to Aomine. The answer comes faster than he expects and, not surprisingly, Aomine didn’t mind. Ryouta smiles a little at his phone like a school girl with a crush, but before he can continue the conversation, his phone starts to buzz.

Shougo is calling again.

Ryouta suddenly wonders if Shougo saw the article. He never cared about Ryouta’s career nor what the magazines had to say about him, but what if he had researched something now? Ryouta left without telling him where to, so Shougo could have… No. He’s overthinking it. Even Shougo probably could guess without Google’s help that Ryouta would be with Kasamatsu or with Midorima and Takao. And even if he didn’t, there was nothing on that article that could make Shougo go after Aomine or something.

Either way, Ryouta doesn’t feel like talking to Aomine anymore or like seeing Shougo’s calls piling up. He puts his phone away. 

* * *

 

Ryouta starts thinking about his current relationship with Aomine. As far as he knows, he’s now free from Shougo (there’s uncertainty around this topic, but Ryouta refuses to think about it for now). Then, about him and Aomine… He isn’t sure of _what_ he and Aomine are. Thinking about dating Aomine gives him some kind of anxiety that he can’t explain. Maybe it’s because he dated for too long and now he’s afraid of commitment. Maybe there is something wrong with him. Maybe Shougo was right all along and Ryouta is damned to never be able to have a proper romantic relationship with anyone.

The only problem is that, the more he thinks about how uncertain he is about entering a new relationship, the more he misses Aomine. He misses how cool Aomine looks when he’s playing basketball. He misses how earnest and simple Aomine’s laughter is. And what he misses the most is the way Aomine looks at him after they kiss – like Ryouta is the most beautiful thing he had ever put his eyes on.

He spent most of the day changing his address on everything to make sure his correspondence wouldn’t end up at Shougo’s and the task was more stressful than he expected it to be. By the end of it, it was two in the afternoon, he hadn’t had lunch yet, Kasamatsu wasn’t home and he craved Aomine’s kisses more than anything.

That’s why he didn’t think. He just grabbed the phone and sent a damn text.

 

[To: Aominecchi, 02:43p.m.]  
I’m so tired... some days are just the worst

 

As soon as he presses the send button, he regrets every decision he’s made in his life since the day he was born. What was he thinking? Why would he say that? And to Aomine of all people? Ryouta rolls on the couch pressing the phone against his chest and chanting every swear word he knows until the phone buzzes and he lets out a shameful yelp. Damn Aomine and his quick replies.

 

[From: Aominecchi 02:44p.m.]  
what happened pretty boy?

 

Ryouta stares at the phone. He doesn’t know how to reply. He can’t say that he’s upset because he just moved out of his ex-boyfriend’s place and it’s tiring. He can’t say that he misses Aomine without sounding creepy and/or desperate. He can’t say what he’s feeling in general because he doesn’t know for sure. That’s why, after a few minutes of deliberation, he decides to just lie: 

 

[To: Aominecchi 02:59p.m.]  
told you. I’m tired. what are you doing?

 

_Perfect._

 

[From: Aominecchi 03:01p.m.]  
nothing. just chillin’ on the emergency waiting room.

 

And, at that, Ryouta’s heart stops. His brain starts to work on full creative mode and he’s sure that Shougo found out about his thing with Aomine. Shougo got furious when he learned that Ryouta got himself a new affair as soon as he left his old home and he decided to make Aomine pay for it. Shougo did it. Shougo hurt Aomine just like he did to Midorima and now Aomine will never want anything else to do with Ryouta. Ryouta can’t afford that. It’s on this moment that he realizes that, as much as he’s not sure if he wants to date Aomine, he doesn't and to let him go either.

 

[From: Aominecchi 03:01p.m.]  
WHAT

 

And he waits for the explanation, but it doesn’t come. Ryouta is freaking out and Aomine can’t bother to type a few words on his phone to explain. Maybe Aomine is so mad that Ryouta hid things from him that he doesn’t want to talk to Ryouta anymore. Maybe he’s furious, because who likes to get sent to the emergency because of a jealous ex-boyfriend? Maybe it’s too late and Ryouta will have to live knowing that he had the chance to have Daiki Aomine and he fucked up, he fucked up so badly-

He can’t wait anymore. If Aomine isn’t replying, Ryouta is calling him and if he’s mad, Ryouta is going to be forgiven, even if he _has to force an apology down his throat_. Fortunately enough, Aomine picks up quickly.

 “WHAT do you mean you’re on the emergency? _”_

“ _Oh, hey_.” Aomine’s voice says on a pleasant tone “ _Glad to hear your voice, Kise. I’m not doing bad, you?_ ”

“Aominecchi.” Ryouta grimaces, the now familiar urge to punch Aomine building up inside him. Fortunately, Aomine seems to understand his mood quickly enough.

“ _Calm down already. I just drove Kagami here, but he’s not dying or anything_.”

Ryouta lets out a soft sigh of relief. So that has nothing to do with him. Of course it doesn’t. Shougo would never see that kind of article, so he obviously doesn’t know anything about Aomine. The fact that Ryouta thought that only shows how stressed he was and how fucked up was his relationship with Shougo to begin with. It takes him a few seconds to remember that Kagami being taken to the hospital is also a concerning thing, but when he finally does, he asks:

“What happened to Kagamicchi? Did something happen on his work? Does Kurokocchi already know? _”_

“ _Huh_!” Aomine snickers. “ _He wishes he got hurt doing something cool like saving puppies from a fire or something like that. He slipped on the shower and twisted his ankle_.”

There is a beat before Ryouta fully understands what Aomine just said.

“Slipped on the shower.” 

“ _No, listen to me.”_ Aomine starts sounding like he’s about to discuss a very serious matter. _“He comes home looking like crap, right? He announces that he’s going to hit the shower and I’m like okay, I’m watching basketball on TV, I don’t care. Then suddenly the loser starts screaming for help and I run over there, right? Then I see. The horror. Kagami sprawled on the floor, skin naked and moaning in pain. God, I never wanted to see that much of Kagami_.”

“Oh my God!” Ryouta can help but start laughing out loud. It’s kind of incredible how Aomine can lighten up his mood so easily.

“ _Kise, I’m not kidding. He didn’t even have the decency of pulling the towel to cover his Taiga Jr. I almost became heterosexual again. I’m traumatized_!”

He doesn’t think he’ll stop laughing anytime soon. Aomine sounds so offended! It’s like he’s asking how dare Kagami take a shower naked and slip on the process? It takes Ryouta a few moments to catch enough breath to stutter:

“I- I wouldn’t want that! Oh God, is he okay? _”_

“ _Who cares_?” Aomine groans. “ _I have no clue, anyway. He got mad because I was teasing him about his stupid accident, so he told me to wait here while he sees the doctor. He said I can’t tell Tetsu, but he didn’t say anything about telling you, so…_ ”

“Aominecchi, you’re so mean...!”

“ _Don’t know what you’re talking about. I drove him here, after all_.”

Ryouta can almost see Aomine shrugging, so he snickers a little more, but his laughter dies faster this time. He didn’t forget why he got so worried to begin with. A quick moment of silence follows and Ryouta can’t think of anything to say. That is enough for Aomine feel his restlessness, he’s sure.

 “ _So. Are you telling me what were you whining about or are you going to play that stupid mysterious shit again?_ ”

Ryouta groans. He considers lying, because that has been the easiest way during all his life. He considers just saying that he doesn’t want to talk about it, because he’s sure that Aomine will complain about it, but won’t force the subject. He bites his lower lip and realizes that lying and refusing to speak was what led him to this miserable state that he’s in now: a grown up man who lives on the couch of his best friend and is scared of his ex. He realizes that there is a _chance_ that Aomine is going to think he’s fucked up and drop him like a rotten potato if he finds out the truth, but also he has a feeling that Aomine will _definitely_ give up on him if Ryouta does nothing but lie.

He makes a quick irresponsible decision that he’ll very likely regret later, but he goes ahead with it before he has time to change his mind:

“Remember that my house was unavailable?”

“ _Yeah…_ ”                                                             

“Well… it’s not my house anymore. I’m officially living with my agent. I mean, until I find myself a new place _”_

“ _What? Why_?”

Ryouta bites his lip again, trying to organize his thoughts. He wants spit it out already, but saying it through the phone doesn’t seem right. If he’s going to get dumped by the guy of his dreams, it won’t be via phone call.

“A lot of… things… happened. I thought I should get my life together, so… Yeah. I spent a whole day getting my stuff back with my friend and it was more stressful than I thought and I’m relieved, but I’m exhausted and today... well, today things were just as tiring.”

“ _Well, doesn’t that make everything clear_!”

“Aominecchi _…_ ” He laughs bitterly at Aomine’s sarcasm.

Everything is so frustrating! Ryouta’s head is full of “ifs”. What if he had met Aomine before? What if he wasn’t such a pathological liar? What if he hadn’t stayed with Shougo for all that time?  What if he were a decent fucking person, able to stay in a relationship? Ryouta takes a deep breath and repeats soothing words to himself: None of those “ifs” exists. He is what he is, he has done what he has done and he’s a man with an ugly personality. There is nothing to be done about it and the sooner he accepts it, the better.

Because it’s okay. It’s okay to be himself and it’s okay to be alone. He thinks of his friend’s faces, remembering that they will always be there for him regardless of anything.

And he thinks of Aomine’s smile and realizes that, if anything, it’s worth a shot. He’s head over heels for that man and, whatever comes to the two of them, he’ll accept it. Because he’s fine the way he is. That’s the thought that gives him enough courage to say:

“You know…We saw each other three days ago, so this may come out a little stupid, but… I miss you. _”_

He sort of fears that he will be teased about it, but again Aomine doesn’t disappoint him:

“ _I kinda miss you too… Stupid.”_

Ryouta chuckles. This is it. Aomine passed every test he could think of. If he says what he has to say, there will be no going back. Knowing that, Ryouta asks:

“Aominecchi, I…I still can sleep over, right? Tomorrow, I mean. _”_

“ _Yeah_.”

“Great. Then…” Ryouta takes a deep breath. “I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Why I’m homeless and all.”

" _What? For real_?"

"For real."

“ _I… Okay_.”

 _“_ Awesome. So… See you. Later, Aominecchi.”

* * *

 

Ryouta once again regrets everything from the day he was born to his current situation. It’s on this _wonderful_ mood that he packs up his things to go to Aomine’s place. Kasamatsu isn’t home, of course, he’s already out to meet his girlfriend, which left Ryouta alone with his thoughts. And his thoughts weren’t exactly a happy place right now, because, as he grabs everything he could need for his stupid _sleepover,_ he realizes he really didn’t think this through.

He is about to go to see Aomine. Go to Aomine’s home. To tell Aomine things that may make Aomine want to break up this thing they have. And Ryouta is spending the _night_ there.

Man, if he get dumped, this will be the most awkward visit ever. He’ll have to come back and maybe go to Midorima’s apartment in order to not interrupt Kasamatsu’s date and he’ll have to answer a lot of questions and Midorima will kill him dead. What a wonderful perspective for a date night!

“No going back now.” He says to his own reflection before making his way out. He better get going before Kasamatsu comes back, either way. Regardless of the consequences, he’s going to stick with his decision. Not running away for once feels strangely good, as nervous as he is, so he finds in himself confidence enough to walk out of the apartment. He tells himself that everything is going to be just fine and part of him starts to believe in that.

That is, until he almost runs over Takao on the hallway.

“Whoa, hey, Ryou-chan.”

“Takacchi!” He exclaims, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean? I’m here to pick you up.” _Oh no_. “Shin-chan said that Kasamatsu-san is bringing his girlfriend over, so you’re staying with us. I came to call you so we can first go buy some… some…” Takao frowns. “Why do you look so nervous? And what’s with the bag? Were you already heading over or…?”

“A-actually…” _Think fast, Ryouta, you can do it!_ “I… I don’t want to bother you and Midorimacchi, so I… huh… I’m going to a hotel or…”

“You don’t want to _bother_ us?” _Oh no, please no._ “Kise, not long ago Shin-chan kicked you out because you were being loud and you kept whining about how mean he is. You don’t give a shit about bothering Shin-chan. You’re lying.”

Why? If there is a God out there, how could he let Ryouta meet Takao of all people? Takao, whose observant eyes never failed and would capture every little show of a lie that Ryouta couldn’t hide.

“I’m not lying! I have no reason to!” He tries, desperate, because this is already a lost cause. One does not simply fool Takao.

“You don’t.” His friend complies. “Unless…” a shit-eating grin that Ryouta knows way too much widens on Takao’s face. _Oh no_. _Don’t do it._   “You’re spending the night _with your secret boyfriend_!”

_Oh my god!_

That’s it, he’s screwed. He desperately tries to come up with another lie – even though he already knows it won’t work, not with Takao excited the way he is – but before he can even open his mouth, a familiar voice comes from the beginning of the hallway. A voice that makes Ryouta’s stomach flip inside him and he suddenly feels sick. From no more than a few feet of distance, Shougo Haizaki’s amused voice asks:

“Who’s your secret boyfriend, _R-y-o-u-t-a?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeere it iiiis~ The biggest douche of the universe~ Guess who is the prick showing up just now? He's finally here!  
> Also some of you may have noticed that now this story is M-rated. That is because I finished writing the sleepover and, let me tell you, I wasn't expecting them to go that far. I hope this is not illegal.  
> Now it's sure that this story is meant to be 10 chapters long. I hope you all follow Kise and Aomine until the end!  
> Once again, English is not my first language, so let me know if you spotted any mistakes. Thanks for reading, as always!


	9. Bad Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Ryouta finishes what's unfinished and is honest - with Aomine and with himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! It took me longer than it was supposed to because this is where it happens. Not only I'm going to tie all the lose ends, but it also has IT. The thing everyone have been waiting or. S-E-X. Let me tell you, I do not write smut, I simply can not.... and yet, here you have it. Smut. In a chapter that got completely out of control and turned out way longer than it was supposed to be. I'm sorry about that.

Shougo. Shougo is there. Ryouta feels like his blood turned into water and all the determination he gathered disappears as soon as he sees the crooked smile on the familiar face, because Ryouta knows him well enough to know that the smile he sees is not real. Shougo’s eyes are as cold as ice and they dart Ryouta as knifes, because he is furious. And there are few things that make Ryouta as jittery as a furious Shougo. He knows that he’s about to have all of his buttons pushed. Every bad thing that he hates about himself is going to be thrown on his face and he knows it.

He suddenly is sure that he’s supposed to be quiet and listen to everything Shougo has to say in silence, for, as bad as Shougo is, Ryouta is far worse. He deserves every ugly truth Shougo is about to snarl at him, so there is no point in denying it, is there?

“I saw a nice picture of you on the internet, _Ryouta_. Hanging out with some dark skinned dude.” Shougo says softly and Ryouta’s stomach drops a few centimeters more. “That one is this _secret boyfriend_ of yours?”

Ryouta opens and closes his mouth without being able to say anything. Shougo’s sudden appearance caught him off guard and all he can do is try not to puke right there in front of him. So he saw that stupid picture with Aomine. He knows everything and he’s going to take it away from Ryouta, like Shougo always do. Ryouta doesn’t know what to do and his chest feels weirdly tight, making it hard to breath. He knows that Shougo is about to continue his slaughter and he can’t do anything about it.

However, before either of them can do or say anything, someone whose presence he forgot puts himself between Shougo and Ryouta:

“If Kise has five secret boyfriends is none of your business anymore, Haizaki.” Takao speaks, clear and cheerful. Nonetheless, Ryouta knows him well enough to hear the venom dropping from his words. Takao obviously didn’t forgive Shougo or what he’d done to Midorima. “What do you want here?”

“Now that is none of _your_ business, loser.” Shougo barks back, frowning. “But I’ll tell you anyway. I go home and I notice that Ryouta’s things are gone and that’s not okay. I figured he’d be here. And I think Ryouta had enough fun already, so I came to pick him up. Enough of these antics, Ryouta, let’s go back home.”

“What makes you _think_ that he’s going back with you? He can do better, thank you very much.”

As Takao straightens his back, unconsciously trying to look taller, Ryouta notices how shorter he actually is. Almost a head shorter than both Shougo and Ryouta. Certainly he’s smaller than Midorima. And yet here he is, confronting Shougo for the sake of someone he cares about. For Ryouta's sake. Then Ryouta realizes that this isn’t a matter of courage. Ryouta will probably never be brave enough to stand up to Shougo, because what Shougo says is pretty much the truth. However…

“He can do _better_?” Haizaki scoffs. “There is no one that could stick with him like I do and he _knows_ it. I’m the only one who can put up with Ryouta’s shit, isn’t that right, Ryouta? Now quit with this stupidity and let’s go.”

This is not a matter of bravery. Ryouta is scared. But he’ll do it anyway. He walks past Takao and covers the distance between him and Shougo in a heartbeat. Takao’s surprised “Ryou-chan?” doesn’t stop him and neither does Shougo’s confused expression because, as afraid as he feels, he’s really damn furious that Shougo came back just to be a _major dick_ to his friends and mess with his head. It happens so fast that no one has time to think about it: Ryouta just sends his fist flying to Haizaki’s face.

Takao lets out a shocked exclamation when the loud thud of flesh being hit is heard. Taken by surprise, Shougo has no time to defend himself, so he just falls on the floor after the punch. Ryouta isn’t completely aware of what he’d just done when he feels a pungent pain from his hand through his wrist and it stings so much that he feels the ache reverberating for his whole arm.

 “ _Shit, shit, fuck, you… son of a… penis..!”_ Ryouta curses and holds his own hand against his chest because his wrist _burns_. What the hell?

Shougo is still on the floor, his hand ghosting over where Ryouta’s fist hit a few seconds ago. He sheepishly tries to touch it and frowns when it hurts. _Yeah, you better be in pain, you asshole_.

Holding his hurt hand against his chest, Ryouta glares at his ex-boyfriend. Shougo stares back with an amazed expression, as if he never saw anything like Ryouta and never expected to. Behind the shock on his eyes, Ryouta sees a hint of pain and he knows more or less what Shougo must be feeling – because they are peers. Ryouta is twisted and ugly inside, but so is Shougo. Just like Ryouta was afraid of being alone and unwilling to let go of Shougo regardless of how bad he was, Shougo must have felt the same about Ryouta. Now that Ryouta has found out that he’s better off alone than in bad company, Shougo will be the lonely one.

Despite of Shougo’s hurt expression, Ryouta doesn’t feel sorry. Actually, seeing Shougo finally on the lower position pleases him. He doesn’t care about Shougo’s well-being. Not even a bit.

“Don’t look for me anymore. I’m not going back.” He says, loud and clear. “It’s over, Shougo. For good.”

Takao whistles. Shougo doesn’t say anything. He probably doesn’t know what to. Ryouta thinks his legs are shaking and he still feels sick, so he turns around before Shougo can think of anything else to do. He grabs Takao’s arm and drags him to the opposite side of the hallway where they can go to the stairs. Takao is about to say something when Ryouta interrupts him by whispering:

“ _Take me to the hospital, I think I broke my hand_.”

* * *

 

“Good afternoon.” Daiki smiles pleasantly at the nurse. “We’d like to see a doctor.”

Kagami groans beside him, but Daiki’s expression doesn’t even flinch. It’s Friday and he’s supposed to meet Kise, but, of course, he’s busy babysitting Kagami. Stupid Kagami.

“Sure.” The nurse returns Daiki’s smile gently. “May I ask what the problem is?”

“Of course.” Daiki turns to Kagami. “Come on, Kagami-kun. Tell the lady what the emergency is.”

Kagami grumbles something under his breath.

“Excuse me?” The nurse asks, frowning a little.

“Don’t be shy, Kagami.” Daiki encourages. “Tell the lady what’s the matter. She’s here to help.”

“I have…” Kagami’s face flushes redder than his hair. “I have a fork stuck in my cast.”

“Yup, there it is.” Daiki beams at the lady.

She doesn’t quite laugh, because she’s probably used to this kind of stupid accident, but she does give Kagami a pitiful smile that makes him blush even harder.  He tries to hide behind Daiki while she gives the some form they have to fill in order to see the doctor. Daiki passes the form to Kagami – after all, he doesn’t know any of that information about his roommate even though they live together since college. Probably because Daiki doesn’t pay attention to half of what Kagami says, except when it is blackmail material.

Kagami throws a dirty look at him, probably wanting to ask why Daiki is in such a bad mood – which can be easily noticed by the amount of people he managed to tell that Kagami was trying to scratch his leg and ended up with a fork stuck between his skin and the cast – but Daiki isn’t telling him. He is not saying that he’s angry because he might get late for his date with Kise.

It’s not that he’s nervous or something like that. Of course not. He’s not some dumb teenager with a crush or anything. He usually wouldn’t be so worked up about a damn date and that makes him even grumpier. Who would blame him for making Kagami pay for it?

Tetsu would. Right.

Tetsu would be super annoyed and would never let Daiki live down the fact that he was nervous about being late for a date if he ever heard about Daiki bullying Kagami – apparently, Tetsu is the only one who can bully Kagami.

“I’m going to buy something to drink.” He announces and doesn’t wait for Kagami’s reply.

He’s sure that he saw a vending machine right outside, so he heads towards the exit. He considers for a moment just leaving Kagami there and going home, but he would feel guilty – even though is Kagami’s fucking fault that he’s an idiot who can’t handle an itchy leg – and Tetsu would murder him. Yeah, he better just buy an energy drink or something and go back to Kagami.

When Daiki finally finds the vending machine, he sees a familiar blond mop together with an even more familiar tall guy and he starts to think he needs help. One thing is being in too deep with some model that plays basketball (because this does sound like something out of a dream) and another is to start seeing Kise everywhere. He better not be hallucinating about his crush, because he would have no idea of what to do if so.

Fortunately, he is not. The blond guy in front of the vending machines does exist and actually is Kise. Except that he doesn’t seem like the usual Kise. Daiki notices that he is just staring blankly at the beverages inside the machine and not like he’s trying to decide what to buy, but like he’s spacing out. There is an unusual shade of pink in his eyes, like he had been crying or something like that, and there is something about his whole body language – maybe it’s the way his shoulders are too relaxed or how the absence of the usual smiling facade – that makes Kise look like he’s tired. Like he just fought a long battle and it’s too exhausted to do anything else.

“Kise?”

Kise jumps and turns around, startled. Only then Daiki notices that there is a splint on his right hand, which he’s holding against his chest.

“Aominecchi! What are you doing here?”

“Long story short, Kagami is a moron.”

“What?”

“Not important. What are _you_ doing here?” Daiki demands, staring directly at Kise’s hand.

“Huh… I kind of sprained my wrist.”

Kise frowns and deliberately avoids Daiki’s gaze and that’s how Daiki notices that the redness in Kise’s eyes isn’t just his imagination. He has a strong feeling that it wasn’t the pain in his wrist that made Kise cry.

“Did you get hurt playing?”

“Huh… No.” Kise takes a deep breath before finally looking up and locking eyes with Daiki. He’s nervous. That much Daiki can tell. “It sprained because I punched my ex in the face with more strength than originally planned.”

“Your… ex.”

Daiki is a really laid back guy when it comes to romantic relationships. He hasn’t dated anyone seriously for a while now – and who has time for that? Most girls he dated ended up demanding too much attention and complaining about Daiki’s lack of interest in anything that wasn’t basketball related and he would always end up dumping them. – but when he does date someone, he’s pretty chill about most things. He won’t get jealous over just anything. He won’t make a big deal out of non-existing things like one week anniversaries or when the person he’s seeing isn’t available to meet. In summary, Daiki is a very low maintenance boyfriend. He wouldn’t care about Kise’s exes in a regular situation, even knowing that – let’s be honest – he’s super into Kise right now. Nevertheless, Kise’s eyes are a little swollen and he’d been acting weird and guilty whenever he and Daiki are together, so Daiki does feel bothered by the mention of an ex at this rate. Suddenly Daiki doesn’t know what to say or what to do.

Fortunately, however, he doesn’t have to say or do anything, because they are interrupted by the arrival of another guy: a black-haired man storms out of the hospital yelling “Ryou-chan!” which makes Kise jump again. There is something about the guy that is vaguely familiar, almost as if Daiki had seen him before, but he can’t really recognize him without the right background.

“Don’t disappear like that, geez!” Black-haired guy pouts at Kise. “I go to the bathroom for a second and when I’m back you just… just…” His eyes stop on Daiki and he frowns a little. “Who’s your friend, Ryou-chan?”

“ _Nothing_! I mean… nobody!” Kise answers frantically and tries to push the guy back to the glass doors. And he’s not as tall as Kise, but he must be stronger than he seems, because he doesn’t move an inch. “Let’s go home already, Takacchi!”

“Wait a second!” The guy – Takacchi? – beams. “Are you Ryou-chan’s secret boyfriend?”

Daiki cocks an eyebrow and Kise looks like he’s about to cry again, but his friend looks absolutely delighted.

“There is no such a thing as a secret boyfriend, Takacchi!” Kise whines.

“So it’s not him? Can I tell him that I’m your lover then?”

“ _Oh my God_ , why would you say that? You’re _not_ _my lover_!” Kise panics and then gapes at Daiki. “He’s _not_ my lover!”

“I’m Kazunari Takao!” Kise’s friend breaks free from Kise’s desperate attempts of dragging him away and extends his hand to Daiki.

“Hm… I’m Aomine.” Daiki shakes his hand, trying to hide his amusement in seeing Kise freaking out. Partially because it’s nice to see that Kise wants to make sure that Daiki doesn’t think that he has a lover, after all it can only be a sign that Kise doesn’t want to dump Daiki or something, but mostly because it’s fun to see Mr. Model losing his composure.

“Aomine…?” Takao repeats, his chin dropping.

“ _Oh God, please, no, Takacchi, don’t_ …”

“You’re Aomine from Teikou! You’re Shin-chan’s former teammate! And you’re Ryou-chan’s high school crush! Oh my _God_!”

“I… What?” Daiki frowns, confused.

The way the guy says “Shin-chan” clicks something inside his brain and he finally remembers where he had seen this guy before. He was Shuutoku’s point guard and he was always around Midorima, yelling that stupid nickname all the time.

And what the heck did he mean by _high school crush_?

“That’s why you hid him from us!” Takao almost yells, all wide grins and excitement, at a very distressed Kise who is currently hiding his face on his hands. “Shin-chan is going to _kill_ you when he finds out that you’re banging his old teammate!”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Daiki raises his hands to ask for time. “Are you telling me that you’re friends with Midorima? Midorima, the lanky, tall, glasses guy that is really obsessed with horoscope shit?”

“That’s Shin-chan!” Takao smirks. “By the way, what’s your sign? Shin-chan will need it to know if you and Ryou-chan are meant to be.”

“Absolutely _not_!” Kise barks, his voice high pitched by embarrassment and panic. “You can’t tell Midorimacchi! He’s already going to kill me because I punched Shougo.”

“Aw, Ryou-chan, he tried to punch Haizaki too, so he can’t really kill you for that.”

Daiki feels overwhelmed by the turn of events. He’s pretty sure that he’s stuck in some kind of teenage drama and he certainly didn’t watch enough of those to know how to react, so he just watches Kise and Takao bickering for a little while. Takao looks like he’s having the time of his life while Kise looks like he’s about to throw himself in front of a bus.

“Oi.” Daiki calls because, as fun as it is to watch Kise losing it, he doesn’t like being forgotten. “I wouldn’t mind some context, you know?”

“Right!” Kise takes a deep breath. “I promised you to…” He stops and takes a look at his friend, who’s still smiling amusedly. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all!” Takao beams.

“ _Takacchiiiiiii_!”

“Alright, alright!” He gives in. “I’ll let you guys have some privacy, because I’m such a good friend.”

“Actually… You can go home. I can handle myself for today. Thanks for driving me here, but I’ll be okay by myself now.”

Takao eyes Daiki and his expression is still carefree, but there is something within his eyes that makes Daiki feel radiographed, like with only one glance he can read Daiki entirely. He remembers vaguely that that guy had some pretty good observation skills back then when they played against each other. It seems that this Takao guy is pretty much like Satsuki: all bubbly smiles and stupid jokes on the outside, but sharp like a dagger inside. It’s almost like he’s judging if Daiki is worthy to be left alone with Kise.

“Sure.” Takao finally says. “Just don’t go breaking anything else, Ryou-chan, or Shin-chan and Kasamatsu-san will get mad, ok? It was a _pleasure_ , Aomine-kun!”

Maybe it’s Daiki’s imagination, but he can swear that there is something threatening in the way Takao winks at him before he leaves. Remembering things that Kise had said about his agent/senpai/fake dad, Daiki asks:

“Are all your friends your protection squad or what?”

“What are you talking about?” Kise frowns.

“Never mind. Let’s grab some coffee, okay?”

Kise nods. They walk side by side towards the cafeteria on the other side of the street. Daiki notices that Kise’s shoulders are stiff as rock and he can’t help but feel a little antsy himself. Maybe – just maybe – he likes Kise more than originally planned and he’s not sure of what to expect out of this meeting. At least the cafeteria is a nice place that smells pleasantly like fresh coffee. Kise orders some weird beverage that _must_ be coffee, but has a hundred more stuff in it and such a complicated name that Daiki doesn’t even understand half of it – and neither does the barista, who’s blushing just by looking at Kise and has to ask him to repeat. He just asks for a cup of black coffee to himself before they look for a table on the corner away from curious looks. They sit in front of each other and a few seconds go by without any of them doing anything.

“So…” Kise is the one to break the silence, but he’s avoiding Daiki’s eyes by playing with the napkins. “Ask away.”

“Well, why the heck you are homeless?”

“Wanna start there, huh?” Kise grins bitterly. “Long story short… I was dating this guy and we lived together, but I got tired of his shit, so I left.”

Daiki blinks. That is a lot of condensed information, so he isn’t able to say anything for a few seconds. The barista brings them their beverages instead of calling their names and Daiki notices that there is a phone number written on Kise’s cup. He shots a smile to the barista and she flushes violently before walking away.

“And… huh…” Daiki scratches his nape. “That is the same ex-boyfriend you punched today?” He’s not sure of what to do if Kise actually has a bunch of exes sticking around, but the possibility seems very likely.

“Yes, it’s the same guy.” Kise carefully swirls a plastic spoon in his drink. “I… I sort of dated him for a long time. I should have dumped him ages ago anyway. Now that I finally did, he didn’t accept well.”

He takes a deep breath and finally lifts his gaze to meet Daiki’s. There are evident signs of worry in his eyes and Daiki feels bad. He’s pretty sure he’s about to be tossed away, just like Kise’s ex-boyfriend and maybe Kise is concerned that Daiki might need a punch to understand it too. Daiki doesn’t. He may be crushing on a model like a middle school girl, but he still has his pride. He bites his lower lip and waits for Kise to drop the bomb, but instead he says softly:

“I had just left him, you know? On the day I met you.”

“So… You and this guy…” Daiki fidgets on his seat uncomfortably. He isn’t good with this kind of conversation.

“We’re done.” Kise guarantees and his eyes are steel-hard when he affirms that. “I don’t want to see him anymore. Never ever. He’s not important anymore.”

Daiki doesn’t doubt him, for there is no room for doubt in Kise’s voice. There is no resentment towards the said guy either, no bitter feelings, just icy and merciless indifference. It’s almost as if Kise doesn’t think of his ex as anything more worthy of attention than a bug. Kise is the kind of guy that has no time to pay attention to people he thinks little about, Daiki had that figured out already.

“That being said…” Kise starts to play with the plastic spoon again. “I’m glad I got rid of my old relationship, but… I’m not sure if I want another now.”

Daiki’s stomach drops several inches. There it is. He should have seen it coming. It’s not that he never been dumped before, but it stings more than he remembers.

“But I don’t want to let go of Aominecchi either.”

“Well, if that is… Wait. What?”

“Like I said…” Kise drops the spoon and stares right into Daiki’s eyes. His usually pale cheeks are colored with an amusing shade of pink. “I like Aominecchi. So I don’t want to date officially, but I want to stick with Aominecchi.”

“You… that…” Daiki trails off, unsure of what to do from then on. He wonders what Satsuki would do. She probably would think that Kise was being a spoiled child. “That’s selfish.”

“I know.” Kise’s face flushes even redder. “That’s because _I’m_ selfish. I’m probably the most selfish person you will ever meet and I don’t even care about that anymore!”

Daiki frowns. He doesn’t know about the selfishness part, but he’s 100% sure that Kise is the most confusing person to walk on earth. Maybe it’s because he’s too pretty. Pretty people must have to be complicated in order to keep the world in balance or something. He wants to get mad at Kise for making zero sense; however, he doesn’t. Being completely honest, he’s mostly relieved that Kise isn’t breaking up with him. Not that he’s willing to say that out loud.

“Is that it? That whole hiding stuff drama and all you have for me is an unsatisfied ex and commitment issues?”

“All I- _Aominecchi_ , that’s _mean_! I’m opening my heart for you!”

“Dude, you looked so distressed that I thought you were going to say that you’re married with children.”

Kise pouts. “It wasn’t easy to tell you that, okay? I thought you were going to dump me.”

This is by far the oddest discussion about a relationship that Daiki had ever had, but hey! He still gets to hook up with the model, so who’s going to complain?

“Ah! I almost forgot. What did you friend mean when he said I was your high school crush?”

Kise, who started drinking his coffee to hide his discomfort, chokes on the drink and his face (that was almost normal colored again) turns even redder than before while he coughs loudly and deliberately avoids Daiki’s eyes.

“You were _not_ my high school crush!” Kise shrieks between coughs and a few people look at them, but Daiki is too amused with the reaction he got to mind.

“Oh?”

“I _told_ you before!” Kise coughs a little more and tries to hide his face while wiping it with his sleeve. “I… I’ve said that I saw you playing back then in middle school, haven’t I?”

“Yes.” Daiki grins smugly. “And what? You fell in love with me back then? Creepy.”

“No, I did not! God, you’re impossible. I just… I wanted to play you. Okay? And Takacchi and I met back then, so he knew. That’s it.”

“I still can’t decide if you’re creepy or if I should pity you.”

Kise groans and hide his face behind his hands, probably aware that arguing with Daiki is useless, and Daiki can’t help but chuckle a little.

“Enough, I’m not answering any of your questions anymore. It’s your turn now. What were you doing at the hospital?”

“Oh, I just brought Kagami to…” Daiki stops. “Shit! I forgot Kagami!”

It wasn’t his fault, really. Kise could be one hell of a distraction, so no one could actually blame him. He didn’t want to come anyway, Kagami should have just assumed the responsibility and kept the fork inside his cast until the day of taking it off.  Actually, it was Kagami’s fault for being a pain in the ass.

Daiki is getting up to go back to the hospital when something occurs to him. Kagami _is_ a pain in the ass. He’s always been and it got worse when he started dating Tetsu. For the time they were together, Daiki had to put up with lots of lovey-dovey stuff and never got a proper revenge, because his ex-girlfriends were always too sensitive or wanted to be alone with him instead of hanging out with his friends. He’s hit by inspiration and he looks at Kise.

“Speaking of Kagami… How would you feel about canceling our dinner plans for tonight… and cuddling on my couch while watching basketball?”

* * *

 

Kagami’s favorite team is playing and he doesn’t have a television in his room, so he has to watch it on the living room. He’s uncomfortably huddled on one edge of the sofa while Daiki and Kise occupy most of the available space. Oh, sweet vengeance.

Daiki found Kagami’s expression hilarious when he came back to the hospital dragging Kise with him. Kise did an amazing job annoying the hell out of Kagami and mercilessly laughing at him when Daiki said why they were there to begin with. Daiki fears that Kagami is going to call Tetsu to request help – it would all be worthless if Tetsu came, because a double date is not even near as fun as third-wheeling Kagami. – but the idiot doesn’t seem to think of that option. Instead, Kagami just scowls when Daiki announces that they’re watching the game with him.

Either having figured out Daiki’s intentions or not, Kise has no problem with showing affection in front of Kagami. He shamelessly feeds Daiki his pizza, rests his head on Daiki’s shoulder and lets Daiki caress his back while they lie on the sofa together. Kagami, on other hand, is obviously embarrassed and annoyed, just not enough to give up on watching his precious game.

Regardless of the bonus of giving Kagami hell, he pays attention to little things about Kise: he’s more at ease than before. He doesn’t fake as many smiles as he did on the first time he’d been there. He curses softly under his breath when the players on the screen make foolish mistakes, as if it makes him impatient that they’re not good enough – a feeling that Daiki is very familiar with. He kisses Daiki during the interval, ignoring Kagami’s disgusted groan, but he stops as soon as the game starts again. He obviously loves basketball.

When the game is over, Kagami hurries away from them to his bedroom. Daiki is sure that he would actually have ran if he didn't have a leg stuck in a cast.

“Aw, I think we made Kagamicchi uncomfortable.” Kise comments.

“Did we?” Daiki absently yawns.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t do it on purpose.” Kise snickers.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He shrugs.

Daiki notices they’re holding hands. He usually doesn’t do hand-holding, so he’s not sure of when his fingers intertwined like that until they’re heading to his room and he’s dragging Kise by the hand.

“Does your wrist hurt?” Daiki asks nonchalantly while he closes the door.

“Not really.” Kise shrugs. “I’ve had worse injuries.”

The two of them head to the bed naturally, as if they already did this a couple of times. It feels only natural to lie on the mattress side by side and facing each other. Daiki mindlessly starts to play with Kise’s hair, slowly pushing his blond bangs away from his face. Kise has a tender smile playing on the corner of his lips.

“Aominecchi?” He purrs.

“Yes?”

“Will you kiss me already or what?”

“Shut up, stupid.”

Daiki leans in and press their mouths together. He slowly slides his hand to Kise’s waist, dragging him closer. The kiss deepens quickly and, for the first time, Daiki is finally able to fully explore the other man’s mouth without the worry of anyone around interrupting them and, boy, does he enjoy the opportunity. When he needs to breathe, he pulls away only to bite softly on Kise’s lower lip, grinning in satisfaction when he hears a soft sigh in response. Their legs tangle easily and Kise starts to tug on Daiki’s hair as they kiss with more intensity.

Suddenly they are kissing to make each other’s lips swollen, they kiss to bruise. It’s the first time Daiki finds someone who can follow his pace, and he doesn’t let the experience go to waste. His hands wander for Kise’s back, descending until they find his ass. Daiki shamelessly squeezes it, like he’s been dreaming to do since he first met Kise. The other man responds by groaning softly against Daiki’s lips and _grinding_ against him. Daiki curses under his breath.

He hurries to tuck his hands underneath Kise’s T-shirt and he barely has time to appreciate the bare skin under his hands before his needs take over and he drags the fabric up. He’s about to say something, but Kise is already sitting up and getting rid of the shirt himself. Daiki could have thanked the gods on the moment when Kise climbs onto his lap, shirtless, if he wasn’t so busy being pulled up to another breath taking kiss.

Daiki’s hands again focus on Kise’s ass, groping over the jeans and groaning in satisfaction with the reactions he got from it. He can feel Kise’s hands lifting his shirt and unashamedly caressing the muscles he finds underneath right before pulling the clothe up. Usually Daiki takes his time and makes the simple act of taking off clothes into foreplay, but he’s too eager today, so he hurries and doesn’t pay attention to where they’re tossing their clothes to. All that he wants is Kise and he wants him _now._

He’s working on opening Kise’s pants when he hears a breathless question:

“Aominecchi…. You have… condoms… right?”

His hands freeze. Condoms. He was supposed to buy them before their dinner date. But he met Kise at the hospital before he could… Crap. Holy crap.

“Huh… Just for fun, let’s say that I don’t.”

Kise pulls away, his hands on Daiki’s shoulders. His expression is shocked. He probably never had a lover stupid enough to _not be ready_ when he comes to sleep on their house. Daiki wants to punch himself.

“So… No condoms?” Kise asks, pouting, and Daiki feels like crying when he slowly admits:

“No condoms.”

“Ah…” Kise sighs in disappointment. “I guess we can’t go any further now… That’s too bad. I wanted to show you something.”

“…what?”

Kise stares at Daiki deep in the eyes, his expression dead serious.

“I have zero gag reflex.”

It takes him five seconds to understand what Kise means and less than half a second for him to push him away from his lap and stand up, ready to fight a war for condoms if necessary. Kise had given him enough inspiration to remember the traumatic experience he had just a few days ago and how it can be useful right now.

“You stay here. Don’t move. I’ll be back with condoms within five seconds.”

“Okay.” Kise smiles and Daiki hurries outside.

His pants are falling because Kise already opened them, so he just kicks them away on his mad dash to Kagami’s room.  When he violently opens the door, he’s wearing nothing but his boxers.

“ _Kagami_!” Daiki barks, already inside the room.

Kagami’s lying on his bed with a sports magazine on hands, his injured leg resting on a pillow. He stares at Daiki clearly not satisfied and says:  “It’s open.”

“I need condoms” Daiki announces louder than he meant to. “and don’t you dare to tell me that you don’t have them, because just a few days ago Tetsu chased me with a whole box and there’s no way in hell you guys used all of that.”

Kagami stares at him with a dead look in his eyes. It seems like he lost all of his will to fight or even to be mad at Daiki, like he finally understood that he will never be able to stop Daiki’s antics so he might as well just give up.

“All of those conversations about boundaries are completely wasted on you, aren’t they?” He deadpans with the voice of a broken man.

“Kagami. There is a model on my bed, he’s half naked and the only thing stopping me from fucking him senseless is the lack of condoms. I know no boundaries. Where. Are. The condoms.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Kagami buries his face on his own hands. “Please, at least close the door. They’re in the drawer of the nightstand.”

Well, in the end even Kagami can be reliable, can’t he? Daiki finds the box as soon as he opens the said drawer and, on the hurry of going back to his own room, he almost misses a tiny bottle that is also there. A bottle of lube. Gross. He doesn’t waste time thinking about it, although, because he finds it more fortunate than anything else. He grabs the bottle along with the box.

“So I’m borrowing these!” he announces as he dashes out of the room, ignoring Kagami’s disgusted groan and rapidly closing the door behind him.

Miraculously enough, Kise hasn’t gone anywhere, and he’s patiently waiting for Daiki on his bed, his hair messy and his lips still red from the previous rough kisses. There is a smug grin on his face and he’s wearing nothing but his underwear. Quite a view.

“Do I want to know why Kurokocchi was chasing you with a box of condoms?”

“You sure don’t.” Daiki closes the door and almost stumbles on his own feet on his hurry to get back to bed.

Kise is more than receptive and he opens his arms to Daiki, promptly hugging him with his entire body as Daiki smooches him again. This time, he chuckles lightly between the kisses and is something perfectly balanced between adorable and alluring. Daiki leaves quick kisses on his whole face, deliberately avoiding the mouth only in order to hear more of that cute laughter. It’s not as intense as before, but that doesn’t mean Daiki doesn’t feel just as excited. This is at first.

“Aominecchi… Are those flavored condoms?” Kise sounds too amused.

In any other situation, Daiki would be extremely mad at him. Yes, he was being way more eager than originally planned, but that doesn’t give Kise the right to make fun of him, right? Nonetheless, he doesn’t feel anything but contentment. He wonders why.

“By chance… they are.”

“Then… I guess I can show you what I was talking about just now.”

And, just like that, the tension from before is back. Daiki lets him take the lead this time and sits back. Kise reaches for a condom from the box and holds it with his mouth, as he pulls down Daiki’s boxers, exposing his already half-hard cock. Daiki doesn’t feel any shame – and neither Kise seems to – as he watches the blond ripping the little package open with his teeth. Daiki bites his lower lip to hold back a hoarse groan when Kise bents down to wrap up his erection, but he isn’t as successful in hiding his pleasure once he has his cock inside Kise’s warm mouth.

Daiki lets out a soft moan. He wants to watch the whole scene, because the sight of Kise slowly licking all of his extension is one of the most arousing views that he had ever seen, but he can’t help but throw his head back and groan when Kise somehow manages to put the whole thing inside his mouth.

Kise sure knows what he’s doing. He sits up and pulls Daiki with him to change their position and soon enough he has Daiki on his knees, shamelessly panting, and his fingers curled up with locks of blond hair while Kise leans in again to keep going. He sucks eagerly, more often than not staring directly at Daiki’s delighted expression. Kise moans around Daiki’s cock, alternating between sucking the tip and swallowing it whole, one of his hands playing with Daiki’s balls.

“Fuck, Kise…” Daiki exhales sharply “If you keep going like this, I’m going to cum…!”

“Aw not yet, Aominecchi~”

The affectionate way he says the stupid nickname drives Daiki crazy, even though in this kind of situation he wouldn’t usually care about how the other person is calling him. He lets his urges take the lead and pulls Kise up to roughly kiss him again. He drags Kise to his lap, and the blond promptly adjusts their position so he has his both legs wrapped around Daiki’s waist. He’s still wearing his underwear as he grinds his hips against Daiki’s erection. Both of them moan.

“However…” Kise leans in until he’s whispering on Daiki’s ear. “I do plan to make you cum in more than one way tonight…”

 _Fuck, he’s hot_.

 _This_ is hot.

Daiki is burning up inside. He rocks his hips against Kise’s, needy, until the blond wraps his hand around his twitching erection and starts to pump it rhythmically, making Daiki groan louder. He’s _damn_ good at that, better than Daiki and that _means_ something.

“Faster.” He demands.

“Like this…?” Kise purrs, smiling smugly. He has Daiki wrapped on his little finger, he knows it and he _loves_ it.

And, as long as Kise keep moving his hand, Daiki doesn’t mind either. With a long moan, he reaches his climax unusually fast and Kise chuckles and kisses his face, obviously very pleased with himself.

“I’m guessing you enjoyed yourself, Aominecchi.”

It takes him a few moments to catch his breath again, but as soon as he recovers, Daiki finds himself pushing Kise to lie down on the mattress and hovering on top of him.

“Yes, I did. I think now it’s my turn to play a little, isn’t it?” He teases in a hoarse voice and he wishes he had taken a picture of Kise’s sly smile.

“I guess so. I think this is going to be a long night, then.”

“Yup.”

And Daiki leans in to kiss him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you kids know... you're NOT supposed to have actual sex with flavored condoms. Those are meant for oral sex and oral sex only. In other words, Aomine and Kise are morons and Kuroko's sex ed class was completely wasted.  
> If you already read until now, I have to thank you. This was the last actual chapter. The next one is going to be just some sort of epilogue.  
> Nonetheless, it's still a chapter, so I'd like to ask you to, please, stay with Aomine and Kise until the very end.


	10. Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which those dumb boys get to enjoy the fact that everything is okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if is there anyone still reading this, but here it is. It's short and so fluff that it's actually dumb, but it's the last official chapter. Enjoy.

“You two are awake. How come. You... Why. How are you two awake? I’m a 100% sure that neither of you nor me nor the neighbors could get any sleep last night.” Kagami’s flat voice reaches them.

Daiki grins. He’s cooking without a shirt on, a habit that Kagami utterly despises, but his soon-to-be-ex-roommate seems to need to complain more about the fact that the shirt Aomine would be wearing is covering Kise’s body instead. Both Daiki and Kise have bed hair – _sex hair_ – and none of them feel even a slight bit embarrassed about it. Daiki knows Kagami’s freaking out. Nevertheless, in his defense, he didn’t spend the whole night making Kise moan as loud as he could just to bother Kagami. Bothering Kagami was one of the benefits, sure, but certainly not what he was thinking about at the time.

“Good morning for you too, Kagamicchi.” Kise smiles, holding up his mug of coffee as a greeting. “Slept well?”

“No, I _did not_.” Kagami grits his teeth. “Because there was a _shit lot of fucking_ noise.”

“Man, that sentence didn’t even make sense.” Daiki remarks while Kise chuckles. Probably with the sole purpose of annoying Kagami.

As if Daiki could fall even more for him.

 “Man, I miss the times when it was just you and your hand.”

“Aw, Kagamicchi, don’t be like that, I’ll think you don’t like me.” Kise whines.

“I _don’t_!” Kagami barks and when he sees the pout on the other man’s face he turns his gaze away, annoyed. “But whatever, I’m moving out tomorrow anyway. Do whatever you want. If I scare you away, Aomine probably will never find such a pretty boyfriend who actually likes him, so…”

Kise snorts.

“No. _Freaking_. Way! Did you hear that, Aominecchi? Kagamicchi thinks I’m pretty!”

Daiki’s loud hoarse laughter muffles Kagami’s mortified stammering while he tries to deny what he just clearly said and Kise’s enthusiastic questions of what about him is so pretty. There are few things that Daiki enjoys more than seeing Kagami embarrass himself. Unfortunately for him, a loud upbeat song comes from Kise’s phone and he has to stop teasing Kagami.

“Crap…” he mutters looking at the screen. “I think Kasamatsu-senpai found out I’m not at Takacchi’s.”

“Seriously?” Daiki smirks “Is your _dad_ going to be mad that you slept with an unknown man? Is he going to show up with a shotgun and tell me to marry you?”

“Shut up!” Kise shoves him to the side, laughing a little, and gets up to answer the phone on the living room.

Daiki watches him go. He may or may not be staring at his ass. Somehow he manages not to let out a sigh of adoration, but he still feels Kagami’s stare. He stares back, frowning while Kagami – a grown man who is about to get married and shit – fidgets on the same spot, exactly like a high school girl whose best friend was just invited to the prom by the school jock. Typical Kagami. He’s such a loser. Daiki decides to help him through another experience of self-humiliation.

“What?”

“So, huh…” Kagami fidgets some more. Jesus fucking Christ. “I haven’t seen you this happy in a while.”

“Well, I haven’t got laid in a while.”

“Yeah.” Kagami rolls his eyes and finally seems to relax a little. “So things are serious? With Kise?”

Daiki shrugs.

“Dunno. But for now, we’re getting along. We’re fine. I’ll see how it goes. But it might work out, after all… he has the three B’s.”

“The three B’s?” Kagami frowns of curiosity.

“Hm-hum.” Daiki smirks. “He’s Beautiful. He loves Basketball. And he’s amazing at giving…”

“I don’t want to know anymore. Don’t say it.”

“… _blowjobs_.”

“ _Oh my God_!”

“Aominecchi!” Kise wheezes, entering the kitchen again. “What are you saying to Kagamicchi of all people?”

“What, he’s getting married! It’s about time we give him the talk!”

Again, Kise doesn’t seem even a bit embarrassed. Instead he laughs and leans in to give him a very wet kiss and Kagami actually screams in frustration. Daiki thinks he can get used to this very easily.

* * *

 

The sun enters the room through the half-open curtains, reminding Ryouta that he should be up already. He doesn’t want to, though. It’s warm and comfortable and Aomine’s arm is loosely wrapped around him. He considers just going back to sleep, but his phone’s alarm goes go off. Aomine is the one who groans and shuts it. With a sigh, Ryouta turns around to face Aomine.

“I guess I have to get up now.” He announces, voice still hoarse.

Aomine mumbles something and pulls Ryouta closer, burying his face on the crook of his neck exactly where he knows that Ryouta is ticklish. Ryouta laughs and squirms until Aomine kisses the sensitive skin and slowly lets him go.

“Aominecchi.”  Ryouta leans in to kiss him back on the forehead. “We’re not dating. You know that, right?”

“If you say so…” Aomine just yawns and tries to sit up, but in the end just flops back on the bed as Ryouta gets up. “We’re both single. But, enlighten me, Kise… will you hook up with other guys?”

“No, I won’t.” Ryouta calmly replies as he gets dressed.

“Do I have permission to flirt with busty girls?”

“Hell no!”

“Okay. So… we regularly have sex, we don’t have permission to hook up with other people, we hang out sometimes – but those are not dates – and we like each other, but we are not in a relationship officially.”

“Good, you understand!” Ryouta smiles, now fully dressed, and leans down to leave a chaste kiss on Aomine’s lips.

“Yeah, yeah, you hate labels, I got it.” Aomine shrugs, clearly not worried. “You know, within a few days, I’ll go live at the police school dorms and you’re going to miss me so much, you’ll beg to date me.”

Ryouta rolls his eyes.

“You’re not going to prison, I’ll still get to see you regularly.”

“With that insane idol schedule of yours? I don’t think so. You neglect me so much!”

“Aw, poor you.” Ryouta leans down once again and, this time, Aomine holds him to extend the kiss.

As always, Ryouta feels like melting between his arms. Aomine’s kisses are always warm and intense and delightful and Ryouta loves them so much that he almost forgets that he’s supposed to go to work until his phone loudly buzzes in his pocket, startling both of them.

“Ah…” Ryouta pouts when he sees the message on the screen. “Kasamatsu-senpai is waiting for me outside. I gotta go now.”

“Hn…” Aomine groans and caresses Kise’s hair softly “We see each other tomorrow? You remember that Kagami’s making dinner to everyone and even Satsuki’s boyfriend is coming. You won’t let me be the only one without a date, will you? Even though we’re not dating.”

“Yeah, I’ll go” Ryouta laughs and pecks on his lips one last time before getting up “Momoicchi would get mad at me if I didn’t. I’ll be your date and stuff, so don’t worry. I’ll text you by lunch time, ok?”

Aomine grins softly and nods right before turning around and going back to sleep.

As he walks past the mirror, Ryouta smiles at his own reflection. It looks nice, genuine. He’s not trying, he’s just… happy. There is zero effort to be made. He likes his new friends. He feels like he is closer to the old ones. He likes Aomine very much and feels like, despite everything they went through, Aomine likes him back. And, above everything else, he feels like he’s starting to like himself too, little by little. And that’s enough for now. He's happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand that's it! Thank you so much if you read this far, and please let me know what you thought of it! I hope you enjoyed Kise and Aomine's shenanigans~

**Author's Note:**

> Aaand there it was! Thank you if you read until here and, please, leave a comment if you did. Any feedback is appreciated. Please, let me know if you spotted any mistakes, I'm my own beta reader and I'm not one to be trusted with this stuff.


End file.
